The sharing of medical information among health care providers is a key factor in improving any health care system. Most often, in today's debate about make the system better, electronic records are thought to be the best way to preserve accuracy and consistency across the system. Linda Kloss, CEO and vice president of the American Health Information Management System, talks about the three goals of electronic medical records (EMR) as: recording the information instantly as care or tests are given; incorporating all the information from a large number of providers; and using the entire body of information for making decisions about your health care.
Instructions
1. See if your medical information is online. The highest standard of accuracy is an online medical history that is stored in a secure place on the Internet. You and any health care provider you work with should have access to this site. If you are living in an independent living arrangement, or are seeing specialists at a major health care institution, you may already have such a record, provided by the professionals associated with the institution. Make sure you share the access information to this record with every health care provider who works with you. Also insist on being able to access it yourself.
2. Ask for bedside updates. Information that is updated as it is received is always the most accurate. Physicians and nurses who have access to bedside computers save themselves time and provide more accurate data on your care. "Bedside" can also mean within minutes after you are seen in a doctor's office.
3. Keep your own records. If your health network is not set up to update an online master record, you or a family member will be responsible. Ask for copies of your history every time it is updated because of new tests, hospitalizations, medications or illnesses. Make copies of your health history and carry them with you to appointments.
4. Protect yourself from medication errors. Have your physician print out a list of your medications, including prescription name, generic name, dosage and frequency. Keep a copy at your home and a copy with you at all times. That way, a physician will not waste precious time figuring out what medications are interacting if you are unable for any reason to tell him what you are currently taking. Ask your pharmacist to review the medications and note any possible interactions. If you are hospitalized, have an advocate with you who reads the medications prescribed during the hospital visit and confirms that the same medications are brought to you by checking the names and doses with the nurse. If you are fully conscious, you can do this yourself.
5. Go online yourself. Many patients with chronic, complex illnesses scan their records into a web log (blog), adding their own comments about their reactions to certain drugs, photos of scars, rashes or other visible signs. Although this type of information is not official, it can be very helpful to your health care providers, and to you when you are trying to remember how you felt at certain times during the course of your illness. Give your health care providers access to your blog.
6. Make sure every member of your health care team has access to every other member. Make copies of the contact information for everyone who treats you and give each team member a copy. In an emergency, an office may be too busy to track down the information.
Tags: health care, your health, your health care, care providers, care provider
