Some house supervisor from some other hospital: “I’m sorry, we can’t send your patient’s records to you.”
Me: “Gosh I’m an emergency doctor calling from an emergency room it’s kind of an emergency. Are you sure?”
SHSFSOH: “Can’t do it.”
Me: “Why is that?”
SHSFSOH: “Well, it’s the weekend and our release of information department is closed.”
Me: “Well ok no problem, can I just get your name and title? Oh and also the names of the head of medical records and the chief nursing officer? I better make sure they know that medical records are unavailable on the weekend.”
SHSFSOH: “Oh you know what? I just thought of another way to get you the record you’re looking for. We’ll fax it as soon as we can.”
Busted. That was fun, although highly irritating at the same time.
October 31, 2008 at 3:39 pm
I tried to get a medical record for a patient who left AMA from the ICU at another hospital then signed in at ours with chest pain. I faxed the form to med records. [2 hours later] “Sorry, the chart is on the floor of the ICU still, want to talk to them?”
ICU, he told me he was just in the ER. He never said anything about admission. Yeah, sure, I’ll talk to ‘em.
“Oh, yeah, he did leave AMA and the chart is here.”
Great, mind copying anything you got? Labs? Admitting diagnosis? H&P? Whatever?
“Sorry, I can’t do that. I will have to send it to the medical records department and then they will do at that for you.”
Uh, well, can you at least tell me why she was admitted to the ICU? At my hospital, you’re either on a nitro drip or having an acute MI. The patient isn’t forthcoming.
“No, I’ll just send everything down to the medical records department.”
Needless to say, we never got anything. Thanks a ton for your help.
October 31, 2008 at 6:01 pm
What is SHSFSOH an acronym for?
October 31, 2008 at 6:06 pm
Marcia, see first line: Some house supervisor from some other hospital
October 31, 2008 at 6:51 pm
And I thought this only happened to us in our little rural hospital.
November 1, 2008 at 3:05 pm
Hahaha. Cute… bureaucracy at it’s finest.
November 1, 2008 at 5:08 pm
Good for you!
Shame on medical staff who doesn’t cooperate.
Aside for making your job more difficult…they are also potentially hurting the patient.
November 1, 2008 at 5:25 pm
Oh my, I hope this is not what the doctor does when he is whispering into the phone wile darting glances my way.
November 1, 2008 at 5:25 pm
Oh my, I hope this is not what the doctor does when he is whispering into the phone wihle darting glances my way.
November 3, 2008 at 9:20 am
I think it’s a universal truth of laziness that no one wants to actually have to do work at work. This drives me bananas.
November 3, 2008 at 9:15 pm
As a medical records clerk in a physician’s office I ALWAYS prioritize getting records to ER doctors (please actually know your fax number), the ICU, and even just to other provider offices when the patient is present. I may not have everything they are asking for but I really do try to get these done as soon as I receive the call.
I am grateful to now be in an office with EMR so I can actually get the records faxed ASAP instead of spending forever searching for a paper chart so that I can fax it. I wish everyone else would just actually try to get the records out the way they should. HIPAA was not created to make like more difficult, it was supposed to make the transfer of information go smoother.
November 14, 2008 at 10:33 pm
so busted
this was funny