looking at my daughters medical record

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Specializes in Home Health, Geriatrics.

My daughter is 18 and I am her health care power of attorney. She doesn't understand the widely used words of the medical profession. My daughter has been very sick lately and she was misdiagnosed by her primary health care provider. She requested a new physician. Since my daughter was in the hospital for 4 days due to the misdiagnoses, we wanted to view her medical record and get an idea of just what the past physician had written in her record. We had been given a "tip" of sorts by another health care professional who works in the same building, that the record had several errors.

While we sat and viewed the medical record, the medical director and the quality assurance nurse sat there with us. It annoyed me. I knew someone would be there because it's their policy, but to have these two individuals there talking, was ruining my concentration. I was there to look at the record and I have two individuals speaking and asking if we have any questions. I am ready to call back and set up another time to look at her record without these two watching our every movement. I don't care that someone is in the room with us, but to annoy us to the point where we can't even read the record without an intrusion is ridiculous.

Any thoughts?

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Ask them to be quiet so you can concentrate.

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Demand a Patient Representative or go in with your lawyer if it was truly a misdiagnosis AND admission of 4 days with errors

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Specializes in Trauma Surgery, Nursing Management.

Request the record in writing so that you may not only peruse it at your leisure, but also so that you can have a hard copy for reference. If your daughter signs a medical release, this should not be a problem to obtain.

I sincerely hope that your daughter gets the medical attention that she deserves, and my thoughts and prayers go out to you both.

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Specializes in Home Health, Geriatrics.

Thank you SonorityGenius and canesdukegirl for your intelligent replies. My daughter's primary care physician refused to do blood work because she stated my daughter looked "physically well". Upon my insistence, blood work was done and it was found that her potassium level was so low she had to be taken to the ER immediately for IV potassium, CT scans showed her liver and spleen were enlarged and her kidneys were failing. 2 days later her hemoglobin dropped to 7 and she had to have a blood transfusion and hospitalized for 4 days. It has been a very difficult time for us.

Thanks again.

Karynica

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My sincere hopes for a full and speedy recovery for your daughter.

However, an independent second opinion as opposed to forensic analysis , should easily confirm or allay your fears.

In seeing your response in post #4, your first priority is seeking competent care elsewhere, then you have someone else look to see if there were damages.

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Specializes in Trauma Surgery, Nursing Management.
Thank you SonorityGenius and canesdukegirl for your intelligent replies. My daughter's primary care physician refused to do blood work because she stated my daughter looked "physically well". Upon my insistence, blood work was done and it was found that her potassium level was so low she had to be taken to the ER immediately for IV potassium, CT scans showed her liver and spleen were enlarged and her kidneys were failing. 2 days later her hemoglobin dropped to 7 and she had to have a blood transfusion and hospitalized for 4 days. It has been a very difficult time for us.

Thanks again.

Karynica

My PCP said that I looked physically well also until I insisted that she run some labs, because I was feeling really REALLY run down. Turns out that my labs were completely out of whack, I had more tests and more tests on top of more tests and now I know that have renal small cell cancer. Great. It never hurts to be assertive.

I wish you and your daughter the best care. Get the hard copy of her medical record. It helps.

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Specializes in Home Health, Geriatrics.
My sincere hopes for a full and speedy recovery for your daughter.

However, an independent second opinion as opposed to forensic analysis , should easily confirm or allay your fears.

In seeing your response in post #4, your first priority is seeking competent care elsewhere, then you have someone else look to see if there were damages.

Thank you for your response.

My daughter was taken to a much larger hospital away from this area because the hospital here stated she needed specialized care they could not give. Thank Goodness. There is a team of doctors working with my daughter including a Nephrologist, hematologist, a GI/GU specialist and several other doctors. They have been wonderful. They have sent her blood work to a much larger lab which takes weeks to get back results. We are in a waiting game right now, but at least I know that she has some very good people watching out for her well being now. My poor daughter also had to have an endoscopy and colonscopy in the same day. She has really been through so much.

Thanks again for your help :)

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Specializes in Home Health, Geriatrics.
My PCP said that I looked physically well also until I insisted that she run some labs, because I was feeling really REALLY run down. Turns out that my labs were completely out of whack, I had more tests and more tests on top of more tests and now I know that have renal small cell cancer. Great. It never hurts to be assertive.

I wish you and your daughter the best care. Get the hard copy of her medical record. It helps.

I feel for you. It is so aggravating to have a physician who refuses to do blood work because they think one looks well. My daughter was sitting there with a sheet around her shoulders shivering and because she didn't have a temp the doctor didn't think it necessary to do labs. I had her back 2 days later and insisted on labs. The physician acted as though she didn't think it necessary and was even wondering if the labs should be done in the office or the hospital. I told her I didn't care where they were done...DO THEM! It took 4 days to get back the results because it was the weekend and the doctor was off on Monday. Tuesday morning she calls me to say my daughter has the blood work of someone in renal failure and to have the blood work done again at the hospital. 2 hours later she calls back to tell me my daughters heart could stop at any time and to get her to the ER. I told all of this to the medical director who is doing the investigation into this. I don't want anyone else to go through what my daughter has been through.

I wish you the best. :)

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Specializes in Hospice.

You absolutely have a right to get a copy of your daughter's medical record as her POA. You may have to pay a copying fee, but HIPAA allows pts to have copies of their record.

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Specializes in ICU, ER, EP,.

While I certainly cannot give medical advice, and the thread is tilting a touch that way, as a previous poster stated, sign the medical release so that the new facility has the previous info to go from. You can't change the past, only look towards finding diagnosis and healing.

I wish you and family well. We all second guess everything, now you're at a larger facility and I hope you find peace with the care there.

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Specializes in Nephrology, Cardiology, ER, ICU.

Since you have an ongoing investigation, it would be better not posted on the internet.

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