Electric Medical Records.

[RICHARD]

The hospital at UCLA (the teaching hopital associated with the University of California at Lost Angeles) has alittle problem concerning the privacy of the their patients.

Recently the news of Farrah Faucett's and Brittney Spears medical records being perused by employees of the facility has come to light.

One employee, who was not named by UCLA, was terminated for looking the records of 61 different patients. Why? AHs that run the gossip magazines and the websites pay inside people for information they use to boost sales and traffic to the sites.

Not only are there medical employees taking cash for info, there are law enforcement and regular service people that cash in on info

One reporter stated that medical info from a stars records could fetch "hundreds of thousands of dollars" to the right buyer.

FF's recent cancer diagnosis was on the airwaves before she had a chance to tell her son.

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I don't care about what info of mine goes into a computer-that's part of live in the 21st century. It the scumbags that have access to it that kinda bother me. No one is going to make money off of what is inside of my medical file. And I do understand the paranoia that some people have about their shopping purchases being tracked by the large markets they patronize.

Cheez Whiz, Top Ramen and Whiskas Cat Food? So what!

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Remember that most people in a hospital have access to some file that belongs to you or someone you know-that's another reason to be selective as to where you go for medical treatment. If you don't have that luxury, good luck!

[Catsnclay]

One of my doctors just changed his phone system, and now when you call him on his local #, someone..... in another state answers and deals with you.


the first thing they ask for is my birthdate so they can pull up my records! Then they take the message and email it to the doctors assistant (or whomever).

Just the fact that someone in another state has access to my medical AND personal records does not sit well with me!!

I told him just that at the last appointment. Apparently I was not alone in complaining.........we will see what happens.

[K9soul]

A lot of hospitals, especially large ones, have transcription companies doing all their transcription, so people all over the U.S. can get medical reports if they do what I do, at home medical transcription. I type for OSU Medical Center, Feather River Hospital in California and North Hawaii Hospital with my jobs. I have done reports on people in the news and people in political and teaching careers. Of course violation of privacy is grounds for immediate termination and possible legal action. But there are thousands of transcriptionists. Going to a certain hospital isn't going to ensure that only people at that hospital are going to ever see your records though.

[cassiesmom]

When I was a staff nurse at the Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago, we had our share of VIP patients. We had to be very careful. They have an even more stringent policy in place now, though.

Richard, when I read your post I also thought of news report about the government passport office employees who were able to access Barack Obama's passport files.

[smokey the elder]

No security system is "leakproof"; reports of unauthorized snooping and identity theft are only going to increase, so folks have to be proactive in protecting themselves. Some screening and consequences need to be in place to regulate folks who are entrusted with the information.

[RICHARD]

I worked in Med Recs for 13 years....not only are there transcribers, clerks, coders and assemblers that have access to paper records. You have nurses, lab techs, EKG, X-ray and doctors that can look into your files.

Transciptions are usually History and Physicals, a note about why you are there seeking treatment, Operating Room reports, Discharge notes and Xray/CAT scan results.

The Doctor's notes and Nurses notes are also in these files-those are the daily observations of the people caring for patients-those notations that are sometimes more telling that a typed page taken off a tape.

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STE,

The problem is not hacking into a system! It's the effing lazy arsed docs who have to "sign" off on their notes.

It's required that a Doc's Order (on paper) has to be signed by a physician, A telephone order, taken by a nurse had to be countersigned by the doc.

I know of nurses who would "sign" for a doctor-The hospital nurses would write the order and when that chart went to the clinic, the clinic nurses would help the doc out.

So you can imagine the password swapping that will go on once an electric record goes on line!