Misinformation in charts...?

[Mom3]

Having just changed doctors, I had picked up my records from rhe former office.  Being busy with back to school stuff and my son as always, I didn't sit and read the stuff...Just took it for granted that it was accurate.

Yesterday, I had my first visit with our new nephrology practice. Since I have two huge polycystic kidneys and a huge liver, my weight runs high, as you'd expect. Some of it is definitely fat but a LOT is encysted organ weight.

When the doctor came in, he had a huge BP cuff and had to change it out. His having such a huge cuff seemed a little weird. Next he carefully examined me, exclaiming in apparent surprise. "you DO HAVE a very enlarged liver!!"

When he left the room, I picked up the packet of records I'd brought and belatedly started reading and found an infuriating statement on the order of

"This pt is fixated on her liver. Claims she has a huge liver, but her abdominal distension is due to obesity."

I assume the doctor had taken the "word" of the former doctor in the chart, even though the chart included records from ultasounds and CAT scans that showed I did indeed have a HUGE LIVER with multiple large and small cysts.

Made me wish I had read that chart page by page when I had my hands on it. I suspect I would have found lots of erroneous infuriating things. The moral is that we may want to read what they write about us occasionally. In the US it is a right!

Mom 3

[angieskidney]

he carefully examined me, exclaiming in apparent surprise. "you DO HAVE a very enlarged liver!!" ....When he left the room, I picked up the packet of records I'd brought and belatedly started reading and found an infuriating statement on the order of

"This pt is fixated on her liver. Claims she has a huge liver, but her abdominal distension is due to obesity."

Wow! It is infuriating when we find out that the doctor that takes care of us doesn'e even believe us. I mean .. patients sometimes know better than doctors since we can feel what is normal but a doctor should know what a normal liver feels like  and if he wasn't skilled enough to know he should have sent you to someone who does know who would definately have known that your liver was huge. At least it seems this doctor realizes you weren't exaggerating. Guess it was good you made the switch eh?

[Sara]

What an ass!  I hate doctors like that.

[MelissaJean]

Once, I did a blood draw two weeks before my doctors visit.  When I went the student doctor/fellow said he didn't get my lab results and I told him I did actually have it done.  Later, I was reading my chart and he wrote that I was non-compliant.  I was really upset.  The next time I had my blood drawn for this doctor I called to let them know that I did it.... turns out the labs lost my blood AGAIN!  I had to get it re done the next week.  He finally believed me, and I wonder if he changed my chart.....
I think every doctor should see the movie 'The Doctor' to get a better perspective how to treat patients.

[angieskidney]

Once, I did a blood draw two weeks before my doctors visit.  When I went the student doctor/fellow said he didn't get my lab results and I told him I did actually have it done.  Later, I was reading my chart and he wrote that I was non-compliant.  I was really upset.  The next time I had my blood drawn for this doctor I called to let them know that I did it.... turns out the labs lost my blood AGAIN!  I had to get it re done the next week.  He finally believed me, and I wonder if he changed my chart.....
I think every doctor should see the movie 'The Doctor' to get a better perspective how to treat patients.

I've never seen that movie. Who pays in it and what was it about?

I hate it when they call me "non-compliant"!!! I have been called that many times .. like when my BP drops too low and so I refuse to take my BP pills that make it drop even lower .. so now I call the dialysis unit to get them to tell me to do so ... like I don't know to stop the pills when my BP is already too low without even taking them ...   


on a side note .. that has to do with how doctors assume:
like when I was 14/ 15 and the doctor accused me of being anorexic because I was 98lbs at 5'3" ...

When he asked me if I was I said, "I don't know what that is.." and later when I found out that he thought I WAS anorexic and why .. get this: He figured I was anorexic because when I said "I don't know what that is" that that was my way of saying "I don't want to talk about this because I am and think it is fine."  In all honesty I DID NOT KNOW WHAT THE TERM MEANT!!!

Doctors really should not assume anything .. but I have noticed they DO!

[MelissaJean]

The Doctor (1991) is a movie about a doctor who is somewhat rude to his patients.  Then he gets cancer and sees what it's like to be treated as a patient.  He learns a valuable lesson.  I would definitely reccommend it... it has some very funny parts patients can relate to.

[Rerun]

I had to laugh at my chart when I read it.  I had a new Nephrologist.  The visits in sequence were:

1.  A very pleasant, charming 40 year old woman.

2. A pleasand 40 year old woman.

3. A 40 year old woman. 

(Third time is a charm)   

[kitkatz]

I know somewhere in my chart are the words: "Give this bitch what she wants to keep her out of my hair!"

[angieskidney]

I have only been able to see my charts when on PD .. I don't know where I would go about seeing them while on HD

[jbeany]

I went thru my charts page by page the last time I switched docs - and added my own comments to the ones from my very last doc.  She took over the practice of my old doc when he had to move because of family issues.

The month before I stopped seeing her, she had upped the dose on my clonodine so high that I slept for 2 days straight.  My blood pressure was so low my automatic meter wouldn't even register it when my husband hooked it to me.  She reluctantly lowered it back down when I complained about that. Next, she prescribed a blood pressure pill that covered up the symptoms of having low blood sugar, and didn't bother to mention that particular little side effect to me at all.  (Thank heavens my pharmacist is on the ball - he warned me to check my sugar constantly until I knew how I would react.)  Well, I didn't react well at all - my glucose would hit 30 or 40 before I noticed it was down.  I couldn't even stand up to go get juice.  I called the doc's office and got an appointment.  When I got there, I explained the problem and she informed me I needed to stay on the pills because my blood pressure was far too high.

  Well, &*^%$^%, woman, it will be really low when I'm dead!!!

I got copies of my records because I had to transfer to another local hospital to find another doc.  So I read thru the charts and found out that she had called my problem with the clonodine "minor drowsiness"  and stated that I had no real reason to want off the other meds - I was just "difficult".

Thankfully, she had been let go from the other hospital I ended up at, and my new doc's head nurse had worked with her, so the staff there took all of her notes with a grain of salt!

Why is it that I can check the Better Business Bureau if I want an auto mechanic, but I have to jump thru hoops to get any info on how satisfied patients are with their doctors?

[Fox_nc]

I had a similar experience years ago and now I read my chart at every visit!  I open my hemo chart on every visit to the clinic too.  Not only are there docs who write down crazy crap but I found one time when a doctor wrote down orders for someone to call me with information and no one did.  My last neph refused to let me read my chart, or at least his nurse did.  Said it did not belong to me!  WTF?  Needless to say I got a new doc with wonderful communication skills with a very pleasant nurse. They, and the hemo staff, are happy I am so interested in my records and provide me access to everything I ask for.

If you've never read your medical records, or haven't recently, I would encourage everyone to do so!  You'd be surprised what you'll find out about yourself.

[angieskidney]

I got copies of my records because I had to transfer to another local hospital to find another doc.  So I read thru the charts and found out that she had called my problem with the clonodine "minor drowsiness"  and stated that I had no real reason to want off the other meds - I was just "difficult".

Thankfully, she had been let go from the other hospital I ended up at, and my new doc's head nurse had worked with her, so the staff there took all of her notes with a grain of salt!

Why is it that I can check the Better Business Bureau if I want an auto mechanic, but I have to jump thru hoops to get any info on how satisfied patients are with their doctors?

HOLY CRAP!!! I just read that now and I would have been MAJORLY FURIOUS!!!! MAN!! It is your health and she was not taking you seriously AT ALL!! DAMN!! I would have flipped right out on her!! Man it pisses me off more than anything (yes it is a sore spot with me) and wow I wish we could have brought it to light and got her canned!!! You said she eventually got let go? So she DID get canned? Fired? Kicked to the curb?? GOOD!!!  I still can't believe she wasn't taking you seriously about the low blood sugar!! Man I hope she has blood sugar problems one day!! 

If you've never read your medical records, or haven't recently, I would encourage everyone to do so! You'd be surprised what you'll find out about yourself.

How can I? I could when at the hospital unit but now at this building (self care .. like self serve at a gas station) there isn't anything but a paper with spaces to write my numbers on of my pre and post weight and BP and temp ...

[Fox_nc]

How can I? I could when at the hospital unit but now at this building (self care .. like self serve at a gas station) there isn't anything but a paper with spaces to write my numbers on of my pre and post weight and BP and temp ...

Ask someone!  If there is no one else in the building when you are there, bring it up to your Neph or call his/her office and ask the nurse about it.

[angieskidney]

How can I? I could when at the hospital unit but now at this building (self care .. like self serve at a gas station) there isn't anything but a paper with spaces to write my numbers on of my pre and post weight and BP and temp ...

Ask someone!  If there is no one else in the building when you are there, bring it up to your Neph or call his/her office and ask the nurse about it.

There is no one to talk to til they get a new charge head nurse. There is none right now. So the nurses go by old proticol but can't handle any new situations and the social worker is no where to be found and when I call the Neph's office the secretary is a ..  well anyway .. I will just have to wait

[BigSky]

How can I? I could when at the hospital unit but now at this building (self care .. like self serve at a gas station) there isn't anything but a paper with spaces to write my numbers on of my pre and post weight and BP and temp ...

It may differ in Canada.

In the US all one has to do is request the charts, either verbally and or submitting a form (written request).


I did this the first time I was on dialysis and the bs the social worker put in my file was unreal.  We went round and round over what she put in.   I pretty much fired her and had everything she had about me tossed from my file.  This go around I give as little information as possible to the social workers.

[angieskidney]

It's a shame when we can't even trust the staff that take care of us

[bdpoe]

Doctors and staff control what goes into your chart. Some "spin" the facts in their best interests.
What is not in your chart could be as disturbing as what is in there.
Maybe that's why they act so strange when I ask to see my records.
Sure, it differs state by state, doctor by doctor, and facility to facility.
.......bd

[sugapea]

One time while waiting to have my labs I happened to look down at the bloodtubes beside me and noticed a number on them that looked like a social security number but it was not mine. When the nurse came in I asked if that was supposed to be my number, "It's not?" she said. "Umm no, not by a long shot." I said.  " OMG, than goodness you noticed that" she said. Yes thank goodness I did.