Gentle Reminder

[anrean]

We cannot take our health records too seriously and presume the information is correct and things are done! The radiologist who did my scans 3 weeks ago wrote a report that is filled with typos that I know about...wondering about what typos I don't understand. Also, the images were to be sent to my onc and never got there. From now on, I will physically pick up the images and bring them with me. Thankfully reports are online in the patient portal and I caught the obvious errors. Not happy that the trip to the onc (3 hours away) was semi-wasted since she could not depend on the report and could not see the images. Thankful that while at the annual wellness visit with my GYN yesterday, she "let slip" with one comment that they are having trouble with the radiologist...for her patient care is far more important than protecting another doc!!

[Feelingblessed2013]

My PCP once told me that he always looks at the actual images, instead of relying on the radiologists report. He said that when you spend all day staring at images on a computer screen, everything can kinda blur together so you can easily miss things. I had a ct a few weeks after my last LC surgery, the radiologist saw a large dark area of lung tissue and said "a new tumor could not be ruled out". It was bruising from the recent lobe removal, but he did manage to put me in panic mode just a little bit. Same guy "missed" a very small (2 mm) spot on my lung a year earlier. Once it grew to 7 mm, he "found" it.

As for the typos, I don't think they write the reports, they just dictate them, someone else actually types them up. Unfortunately, this is done on a computer, so no one feels the need to proof read the report before submitting it. That leads to misspelled and/or misused words. I was a proof reader in a former life 😜, so I now have a habit of proof reading everything I write, (and I still miss things on occasion). I have also developed a bad habit, I tend to zero in on typos in anything I read. Even now, my tablet is telling me the "no one" should be "noone", but I changed it back to what I wrote, because that just doesnt look right to me, (but I could be wrong). It is annoying as hell.

Anyway, picking up the CD and taking it with you to the Drs appointment is a good habit to have. Personally, I wouldn't trust any Dr that relied solely on the written report, and felt no need to actually see the images themselves. Especially since I am now aware of how un-reliable those reports can be.

[anrean in reply to Feelingblessed2013]

My lung onc always looks at the images, too. I made the mistake of thinking the radiologist would to as clearly requested and send the images. Lesson learned!!

As for the typos, I was being a bit too polite, some could have been typos but some were clearly the radiologist not doing his job. Scary and very disappointing. I managed a doctor's office, and there they each read the reports before signing them - for them it was very important to get it right. Ah, but that was in the old days when patients came before money and time.

We really have to watch everything!! It is way too important even though we don't have medical degrees.

[Feelingblessed2013 in reply to anrean]

We may not have a medical degree, but we are learning the hard way.

[yessirmam]

You bring up a critical and oft undervalued point. no one else wears your body, so no one else has primary responsibility. in healthcare, life is at stake. I learned to know to have copies of everything, to include doctor notes in the clinic/hospital files. then i failed to do it last year when in a foreign hospital. thenradiologist report screamed red flags, yet the doctor was just worried about a bit of inflammation. i never got a copy of the report. if i kept to my plan the LC would have been handled then and not 7 months later. that cancer was found by a doc that was on the ball. you are paying for services (even insurance, you pay for that so you still paying for services) so get what you pay for, let no one dissuade you. should you be somewhere off your usual clinic, having records in the cloud or a hard drive containing pertinent data is invaluable,

[anrean in reply to yessirmam]

You are absolutely right!! I wear a Medic Alert bracelet that allows my information to be updated, The bracelet has some info engraved on it and the medical team can call the phone number on the bracelet and get more detailed information. So far it hasn't been necessary to use, but it is vital for that one time I cannot speak for myself!

[Spainy]

My lung cancer has been missed 2x by radiologists paying little attention and writing inaccurate reports. Originally my orthopedist saw the spot on my lung, nothing was noted on the radiologist report. Get complete copies of all your reports.

[anrean in reply to Spainy]

That is awful. So sorry it happened. Most of my scans are performed at a comprehensive cancer center, but in the case of my lung ca I switched to an out-of-town onc because I so much disliked the onc at the CCC. It is terrible that we have to be on top of so much when we do not have medical degrees! Denzie is on this site and she is amazing - she knows so much! I have a lot of trouble because of a TBI, but have learned to write things down and never give up when I know something is wrong!!