Don’t Let Your Medical Test Results Fall Through the Cracks
(as published in the Syracuse Post Standard
August 30, 2011)
A few years ago, I changed primary care doctors.
The one I left had good credentials. Over the span of a few years and several visits, she had seemed competent and was friendly.
But on my final visit, there had been a change that caused me to leave her practice. It came in the form of a sign which hung on the walls in all of her exam rooms. It said, “Please do not phone us for your test results. We will call you if there is a problem.”
I was stunned; although I knew immediately why she imposed that policy. It costs time and money to phone all those patients, make copies and mail them. She decided the expense wasn’t worth the failsafe. As her patient, I found that to be dangerous and unacceptable.
A study published in 2008 illustrates why this is a problem. It focused on mistakes made during the ordering, administering and reporting processes of primary medical care tests. The report showed that seven percent of results that went unreported to the patient resulted in additional problems for that patient including delays in treatment, further pain and suffering, and more out-of-pocket expense.
Evidently my former primary care doctor finds it acceptable to intentionally drop the ball on care for seven percent of her patients. Those weren’t odds I was willing to accept.
Few of us visit our doctors anymore, primary care or specialists, without being tested for something. Blood work, urine tests, a CT, MRI or any other test…. No matter whether the results are perfectly normal, or identify a problem, we need to know where we stand and what to change, if necessary. Their results are always important, and we patients must always know what they are.
When you are given any sort of medical test, ask how and when the results will be reported to you. Don’t accept a “don’t call us” reply. When they phone you with results, ask for a follow-up copy by email or postal mail. If you don’t hear back when they say you will, call the office of the doctor who ordered the test and bug them until they come through.
Doctors’ practices are becoming busier than ever. It’s easy for test reporting efforts to drop through the cracks. Don’t let your test results be among them.
……………… ADDITIONAL RESOURCES ON THIS TOPIC ………………
How to Get your Medical Test Results
How Primary Care Doctors are Dropping the Ball on Medical Tests
How to Get your Medical Records
How to Correct Your Medical Records If There Are Mistakes
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