Beware digital medical records

David J

Digital medical records are a great advance in medical care. The patient, or advocate, doesn’t need to repeat the history every medical visit. 

But beware; a mistake in one provider’s notes will carry over to every subsequent visit. My wife had a bad experience the last month, which was actually caused by a mistake made several months ago. Most of my wife’s meds were prescribed and managed by her psychiatrist. There were frequent changes of meds and dosages, that he documented and I implemented. I also reported all of these medications and dosages to her PCP, who would record them in EPIC (MyChart). The mistake happened when I reported a med change, which the PCP recorded in her notes, but the med list was not updated. Flash forward to my wife’s admission to memory care. The MCF wanted a form completed by her PCP, summarizing her current medical condition including current meds. So the incorrect information was given to the MCF, and even though I had given the correct information to the hem, they just dtuffed it in the file and went by what the PCP had sent. 

So I discovered all this yesterday, after my poor wife had to endure 5 weeks of overdose and two hospitalizations. There will be no long term effects, but the last 5 weeks have been terrible for my wife, and very stressful for me. I have already spoken to the MCF about the heir error, and will talking to her PCP today. This is posted as a cautionary tale, not a request for advice. 

SusanB-dil

Oh, my - hate you both had to endure all that, especially after you giving correct info.

Thank you for the heads-up / warning.  Good to keep on top of things and be checking.

jfkoc

I agree...if you check you will find at least one error!

M1

David I am so sorry.  You are exactly right, computer records do NOT prevent mistakes, they just change the kind of mistakes that are made.  Garbage in, garbage out.  My entire career I have beeb hearing how computerized records were going to improve care and it is not my experience that they have done so.  I now review electronic records from all over our state and it is pitiful how bad they are.

Joydean

Thank you for the warning! I’m so sorry you and your wife had to go through all the added pain! I have been looking over some of my husband’s records from his psychiatrist and found 2 errors! Scary!

eaglemom

Thank you David for sharing this information with everyone. I'm so glad you've not got the situation under control.

I do try to check my DH's meds list when we're at an appointment, but even though I correct them, they never seem to be corrected. You've got to always be on your toes.

eagle

harshedbuzz

I am so sorry you and your DW had this awful  experience.

Thank you for the reminder. 

The worst medical SNAFU we had was when I moved my parents back near where I live in PA after dad was diagnosed. He was diagnosed during a hospital stay and turfed to rehab for OT/PT for 6 weeks after. I'd lined up a new PCP for them, but dad hadn't had his first appointment so meds were prescribed by his doctors in MD, FL, DE and the hospital in PA. The doctor who saw him in the SNF didn't release him home with a prescription for Seroquel which the neurologist had written. I picked up the prescriptions and my mom dispensed them as written for about a week as dad became increasingly aggressive. I doubled checked the medications and found the local pharmacy had filled prescriptions for another man with his name and birthdate who died in Sacramento some 12 years prior. While there was some overlap in Prozac and Lipitor, the rest was random and the antipsychotic was missing. Ugh. 

TL;DR You can't be too careful.