Responses to "access to EHR"

Responses to "access to EHR"

rjensen

9/26/2012

THANKS TO ALL WHO RESPONDED TO THE QUESTION OF HOW TO GET ACCESS TO
HOSPITAL'S ELECTRONIC HEALTH RECORDS

 

Here are the reponses:

 

 

Having the patient sign an authorization to release medical records is a
start. Secondarily, if you refer to your office as a practice rather than a
company will also help move the elevator to a higher floor ;-{)

 

 

I went for training last week on electronic charting in a local hospital.
There is a difference that probably counts a whole lot. I am professionally
licensed by the State of Florida. However, I'm almost certain that prior to
licensure here in Florida, I was on the Ancillary Medical Staff of that
hospital. I suggest that you approach the Chief of the Medical Staff and/or
the Hospital Administrator. I would also suggest that you get in touch with
all of your referral sources and give them a heads up and ask for their
support. Licensure is probably the better of all the routes to take as far
as the electronic charting issue as it lends the weight of a profession to
what you do as opposed to a business. Every where you look, you will find
agencies looking at us as Vendors. I don't know of any hospital that ever
admitted a company to its medical staff, but Licensed individuals, yes.
 
 
 I have the same problem. What I do is to get a piece of white paper and
stamp the patient's medical record number on the front. Put in your chart
notes and file it in the chart for the Dr's review. As for looking at the
order, I have the person calling us to fax over the order.

 

 

Back here in ol' FRG, the problem is similar but perhaps not as advanced as
yours. At our local hospital in Barrington, we get orders faxed to us,
written in the electronic note. When at the hospital, the M.D.s are still
writing in the old fashion chart so I can read the history of the patient. i
then can chart in as much detail as is required as to my intervention.
However as time goes on I am being squeezed out the process as they
gradually go more electronic. At least they are paying on a timely
basis....We have to take our victories where we get them I suppose.

 

I've worked with several hospital systems using EMR. In each case, they had
a paper chart on the floor for adding anything that could not be added
electronically immediately. This included my notes as an outside provider. I
would hand write progress notes, which would then be scanned into the
electronic record at a later date, with the other paper-based info

 

 

R> Our company is 60+ years old and has diligently charted our

activities in the hospital chart as part of a complete medical record.

 

As a BK amputee I would appreciate my prosthetist having access to as well
as the right to record observations, findings, ideas, in my medical record.

 

I have seen physicians and prosthetista since 1969 when my leg was amputated
following a motorcycle accident. Physicians often know v-e-r-y little about
amputation or prosthetics, and if they are wise they reply upon someone with
far greater knowledge...the prosthetist.

 

For that reason, I find it very peculiar that you or any degreed
professional should be denied access to medical records. After all, if I did
not trust my prosthetist, I'd find one I did trust.

 

 

 

Different hospital systems work differently. Locally there is a large
regional system where privileged practitioners MUST attend an IT course on
their record system, are provided their own logon user name and password,
and are required to use the system. They can then log into the system to
see outstanding orders from all the floors of all the hospitals on the
network they need to address.

 

 

There is a downward flow in the system and we are on the bottom, just accept
the fact that there is no mutual respect with regards to information. The
reason why the information is expected to go up is it goes to the National
Medical Reporting Bureau which then disseminates to the govt and insurance
companies. This is just an issue of control and has been going on for over
200 years. When you supply blood to a laboratory, the machines do thousands
of tests on you, however only the test you paid for is released to you, the
rest go to NMRB and they know everything about you that even you don't know.

 

 

 

 Just an old guy thinking here. Do you have hospital privileges ? If so you
have all the privileges as any other privileged provider , ie:

M.D., If not you are less than the janitor, he's at least employed by the
hospital. I would love to know how this pans out, keep me in the loop.

 

 

 

Interesting dilemma. I too used to add notes to the hospital records day in
and day out, but that was a long time ago. I guess I would ask the patient
to request a copy of their clinical hospital notes to give to you for
liability purposes. This would at least support your denial to access such
records and, I would guess, might be a red flag for the hospital that they
might want to include your services in the record.

You might ask an attorney friend what he or she thinks about this omission.
Without your inclusion, I would guess that the hospital is more at risk
regarding your services inasmuch that they would not have a record of what
actually occurred on their watch. Just a few thoughts.

 

 

 

 we are designated as part of the ancillary medical staff. Thus we were
given privileges to access the medical record, both within the hospital
and remotely. This extends to Xray as well.

Orders for our office are electronically generated by MD's and treated as
consult requests for outside specialty referal.

You could likely petition the chief of service to grant access in a similar
manner.

Their concern is HIPAA and in CA the electronic medical records privacy act.
This WILL place you at significant risk in the event of security breach by
any of your staff, or anyone else, through your computers.

We have had this remote access for the past 5-6 years.

 

 

I would be interested in knowing if hospital based O and P departments are
having similar difficulties with regard to making pertinent notes in the
electronic health records when providing their services...

 

Here at the University of VA we have access to charting in the electronic
health information. Epic is used here. We can chart our notes and see chart
information on the patient we are working with.

 

 

 

 

Are you ??? or what? You have no legal standing or entitlement to be allowed
to access their proprietary patient health records for your own O&P
purposes. Health records (hospital & VA) contain large amounts of personal
patient data no should ever share with you or give you access to.