It’s often hard for our movement to get major media attention, but it looks like it’s happening: things are heating up on the “empire strikes back” front that we reported on twice this week.
Friday’s New York Times, page A30, carried an editorial Roadblocks to Sharing Medical Records, about the report ONC sent to Congress last week. (Congress had asked for the report. See our post Monday.)
This is serious stuff, folks – the report said whoever it is (unnamed, so far) is “knowingly interfering” with the exchange of health information. That means they’re preventing patient records from reaching other people who might need them. As the Times editorial and the report say, it appears to be for business reasons, i.e. for their benefit, to the detriment of patient care.
And in my view personally, this has to be somehow connected with the rule change proposed a week ago, in which lobbyists are saying providers shouldn’t be required to make it easy for all of us to get our information. That’s the #NoMUwithoutMe campaign, that we posted Thursday.
The Times had a feature article last November, Medical Records: Top Secret. Here’s hoping we continue to see growing media coverage – this is serious stuff. Remember: No doctor can do what they’re trained to, if they don’t have the facts.
Restricting flow of patient information
is not a valid playground
for private business interests.
If you want to do that, go find some other industry.
Unfortunately, within the same Health Systems, whole modalities can and have refused to utilize the EPIC system introduced and implemented department by department.
A recent personal experience as an inpatient, prescribed medicine from one such resisting modality was not included in my known meds because they are not part of my EPIC profile, but are in my now 3-4 inch hand written and medical record stored file. I see this file only when I have this specialist appointment, yet I use this prescribed drug daily! This is not good medicine. It is the second such failure within the same Health System, within which I am a long time patient.