Wednesday, December 21, 2011

Create Your Personal Medical Record But Be Careful Choosing To Store Them Online

These days more than ever people should take a pro-active strategy managing their personal medical record. Like most people, you've probably relocated many times during your life. Moving in to any new community usually indicates developing a partnership with a new physician, dental professional or other healthcare provider. Eventually, it's easy to forget vital details when you were taken care of, by whom - even for what. Even if you've lived in one place, it's still likely you've gotten medical care from several healthcare physicians over time.

There is no one place you can go to get your complete health history. Each doctor you see keeps his or her own patient information detailing your medical visits and treatment. The same is true for hospitals, clinics,   labs, dental practitioners, opticians, chiropractic specialists, drug stores and so on. Only you are in the position to gather all the information together to compile your complete medical history.

If you don't already keep a personal medical record, now is the perfect time to begin. Do not depend or assume that medical providers will have your complete medical history readily available. The longer you delay, the more problems you may have in acquiring older health information.   

There are several factors why you want to obtain your medical history after you are treated:
  • Health Records are not stored indefinitely by medical providers. Storage times may differ based on where you were treated.
  • Hard-copy paper records can be misplaced, ruined by fire or water, or simply lost. Duplicate copies of paper records are not normally created. This can result in the original medical record may be the only copy that is available.
  • Your older medical records may be located on microfiche and the readable quality declines over time.
  • Electronic information located on computer systems, CDs, DVDs or small storage area gadgets called thumbs may also be missing or damaged.
  • Like everybody else, doctors relocate or merge with another practice, retire, or pass away.
Nationwide standards for health privacy are founded by HIPAA (the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act) and the Office of Health and Human Services, www.hhs.gov. One of the most important privileges involved in HIPAA is the right to acquire duplicates of your healthcare details. HIPAA also allows you to ask to modify any mistakes in your healthcare details.

For more on your right to access medical records under HIPAA, see Fact Sheet 8a, HIPAA Basics: Medical Privacy in the Electronic Age, www.privacyrights.org/fs/fs8a-hipaa.htm.  

Once you have your medical records in hand, you can start to compile your own medical history. The MedTrakker personal medical record organizer allows individuals to manage, document and share their medical history will their healthcare providers.

If you want to incorporate a bit of technology to your recordkeeping, there are product items you can purchase that you can use to help monitor and store your personal medical record. Internet-based storage space websites are also popping up. These solutions allow you to keep your healthcare information, transfer information from other resources, and discuss your information with your healthcare physicians.     

A Word of Warning:

Commercial items sold to manage and store your medical information differ from suppliers. Just like paper records, medical information stored on your pc or a far away website can be lost, corrupted or even stolen. If you consider using one of these services, be sure to read the manual, especially the organization's published privacy policy and terms of service. When shopping for technology, security is a must.

Begin documenting your medical history and take an active role in your medical care today! MedTrakker© gives you peace of mind knowing your records are portable, secure and away from prying eyes.

The medical organizers are available exclusively online at: http://www.medtrakker.com/
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2 comments:

  1. Great post i am so impressed here.
    Thanks for sharing...




    "Michael Muskat"

    ReplyDelete
  2. Thank you Michael for taking a moment out of your busy day to read my my post.

    ReplyDelete