Posted by Solstice on September 4, 2011, at 21:25:15
In reply to Re: CE, advice on obtaining med records » Solstice, posted by Phillipa on September 4, 2011, at 20:10:46
> In all honesty she's been issued warnings found on google for over prescribing antidepressants and pain meds. Also she uses recycled paper meaning other writing on the backs. Her nots are at the end of a checklist and consist of really nothing. As each patient given their chart and believe me have ample time to read them thoughly before being seen. Never saw this done before handing your medical records to you to read? Phillipa
Sorry Phillipa.. what I wrote may have not made sense.
I *do* think it would be weird for a psychiatrist/therapist to just randomly hand a file to a patient to read. However, if that care provider is retiring, I don't think it would be weird for the doctor to give the file to the patient, because they will have no reason to keep it. Now if the doctor is staying in practice and the patient is leaving their care (for whatever reason), then I don't think it would be weird for a doctor to give the patient a copy of their file.
As for notes.. a lot of psychiatrists and therapists keep notes to an absolute minimum. My therapist's notes are very brief. It's done on a form where some boxes are checked off that have to do with basic things like affect & whether depression/anxiety is better or worse - and then there's a sentence or two that just has a detail about content - i.e. "Saw FOO (family of origin) for holidays, reports a good visit."
I know that in years-gone-by, doctors were protective of medical records and were reluctant to give them to patients. However, HIPAA is not a state-by-state thing - it is a law enacted by congress. This law says that patients have the right to inspect, copy, and request changes to their medical records. (Request changes if they find an error). So the days of doctors acting like patients don't have the right to see their records is gone.
Sol
poster:Solstice
thread:995764
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