What are the advantages of maintaining a personal health record

What Are the Advantages of Maintaining a Personal Health Record A personal health record helps patients ensure that all medical details are accurate and updated. Maintaining a personal health record is also convenient in case the patient is involved in personal injury litigation and medical record review is required.

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Patient medical records are significant because they provide the healthcare team information regarding the patient’s health status and care provided. They are also required for medical chart reviews and medical peer review. A well-documented medical chart is also the best support for a physician’s defense if there is a medical malpractice lawsuit. A patient may have multiple health problems, and may be consulting multiple healthcare providers belonging to different medical specialties. Each patient visit generates new medical data related to consultations, interim tests, hospitalizations and so on that are difficult to keep track of. Often, doctors may be seeing patients without complete medical records, and this can be risky. A solution to this can come only in the form of interoperability of various electronic medical record systems.

The present situation requires patients also to be in charge of their medical information and keep track of their medical chart.

They can take relevant records along with them when visiting the doctor and make them available to each of their doctors. This will provide the doctors a more comprehensive understanding of the patient’s health status. So how can patients collect their medical data and use it to ensure proper medical care?  Check whether the doctors they consult have patient portals. They can sign up for these password-protected websites, which will enable them to view their EHRs from each provider, healthcare system or physician practice.

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 Request a copy of the medical record after each doctor’s visit or procedure. The patient can then create his/her own personal health record (PHR) by consolidating the information including diagnoses, lab tests, and medications.

The information can be stored on a computer or in the cloud.

What are the benefits of patients maintaining their own personal health record?  They can ensure that all medical details are accurate and updated. Most importantly, they can check whether drug allergies and other such details are accurately recorded.  Errors due to oversight or EHR-related glitches can be identified and corrected immediately.  Often, patients forget or misinterpret what doctors tell them during their consultations. A personal health record will enable patients to record and keep track of the doctor’s instructions during each visit. In case there is some ambiguity regarding drug names or other instructions, it can be cleared.  The medical chart information can be kept safe in the event of some unexpected problem that prevents doctors from communicating with each other and sharing the required information.  When patients have their own information, getting a second opinion becomes easier. In case they need a second

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opinion, they can go ahead and see another doctor without having to get the records from the present doctor.

Maintaining a personal health record is also convenient in case the patient is involved in personal injury litigation and medical record review is required. When an accurate medical chart is in hand, lawyers can begin the process of determining whether the case has merit and a reasonable compensation can be obtained for the injured person.

www.mosmedicalrecordreview.com

918-221-7791