Transferring 30 printed pages of medical records to my doctor

In January 2000, I was hospitalized at Stanford Hospital following a vehicle accident.

In December 2009, I visited a Urologist and when I mentioned my medical history, he said it would be useful to get a copy of my medical records from Stanford Hospital. His nurse began a request for medical records from Stanford, estimated to take six weeks. My doctor’s office is three miles from Stanford hospital so one could walk there and back in an hour to get records, in theory. In practice, it requires a search of off-site archives to retrieve medical records.

I returned home and remembered that subsequent to my hospitalization 10 years ago, I had requested copies of my Stanford medical records for myself. I dug up the large envelope of 30 single sided printouts.

Now to get the 30 page medical record to my Urologist. My doctor’s office uses EPIC for electronic medical records and as a patient I have a tethered PHR - meaning I can view my EPIC medical record from any computer on the Internet using a web browser. I can also send an email to the doctor and view/create appointments.

I attempted the following, without success, to get the medical records to my Doctor:

I scanned the pages at home and created a PDF, but the EPIC patient email software does not allow attachments.
I uploaded the PDF to my personal website and then sent an email to the Doctor with the URL for him to download the scanned medical records. I received a response that the download could not be performed. I suspect that the old/pre-web EPIC email interface does not produce clickable links, but could the doctor not execute a copy/paste from EPIC to a browser?
I phoned my doctor and was told to fax the documents. Sorry I don’t have a fax machine at home.
I logged into GoogleHealth, hoping that I could link my clinic’s EPIC system to my Google medical record, but GoogleHealth offers no functionality to upload medical records from one’s own computer, only to import medical records from a variety of vendors. I did not try Microsoft HealthVault, though I suspect the same result. Anyway, it was a long shot. I am sure that linking medical records between Google/Microsoft and medical providers is a long way off

I ended up driving to the doctor office and hand delivering the medical records to his nurse.

Wishing a year of good health to you all!

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January 5, 2010 - Posted by jgershater | Health Information Technology | EHR, HealthVault, tethered phr

1 Comment »

It is so surprising to me that in this day of computer technology, when I can manage my bank activities from my phone or computer; when I can pay bills and handle legal issues from the computer; that the only thing I can’t do is easily communicate with my family’s doctor over the computer! I run into the same issues when I have had to get files from one doctor to another and then to a specialist for my children’s files – I have copies but my option is to hand deliver (which being that I live about 20 miles from town this is not the best option) or fax (I don’t have a fax). I cannot scan them to PDF or images because they don’t accept electronic files from patients. The doctors and specialist are within walking distance of each other, in fact two share the same building, but for some reason it’s quicker for me to drive into town to give them records.
Crazy!

Comment by protogere | May 7, 2010 | Reply