Let me start by posing a question: suppose you have spent some time in hospital(s) and/or outpatient clinics. In the course of that you have provided substantial amounts of information to your doctors – information that is then recorded (whether electronically or in a paper file) and stored for future reference…. Who owns this information?
Does it belong to
(a) the service caring for you now
(b) the service which cared for you at the time you provided the information.
… Or we could even throw in
(c)YOU
So, what do you think?
To me it’s very clear that the information is the patient’s information, and we are just storing it.
Sadly, it often doesn’t seem that medical records departments share that opinion. Rather they appear to view the files as ‘theirs”, and resist fiercely any attempts to get hold of said file.
The upshot of witholding information in this way is that it increases potential risk to the patient. I’m ok – I go home at the end of the day; it’s the patient who (potentially) suffers through this lack of information flow. – And it’s wrong.
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