Technology

Had an emergency with a pet while traveling recently. The nearest open emergency vet had a sign in the exam room stating that the visit is recorded. No mention anywhere else. No form. At this point you've already driven there, paid an upfront amount/put a card on file, waited potentially an hour or more with a pet in an emergency situation, and are finally seeing a vet. Are you going to say anything at that point and potentially risk getting worse care? I can tell you as someone who cares about privacy I just let it happen. I wrote a review and called around to other places so I know for next time I'm in that area. I know it's different for vets vs people, but I was very upset about that situation. I can only imagine how frustrating it would be if it came to the data of yourself or your child.

I had to see a specialist for something and they used one of the platforms mentioned in the article. There was no way to not use it. You could opt out of some things, but they said that's how they provide information and communicate with patients so you had to make an account and do payment and schedule through that system. I sure thought I opted out of the data sharing, but I'm going to check later today what I'm actually opted out of vs what I thought I was.

This beginning story doesn’t make sense. Seek health care. Denied health care unless you consent to being recorded. How is that legal? Do they get around it on a technicality because a lisp isn’t a life threatening condition? HIPAA doesn’t read like that, so how is this legal?

By virtue of the fact that no one but this patient has read the consent in full before signing so no one has sued yet?

As for sharing chart info within healthcare for continuity of care, that’s allowed by HIPAA. Go to your PCP, do some things, need a specialist, go to the specialist, they’re opening your same chart file, specialist runs more tests and tries some things but then says surgery, go to a hospital, surgeon, nurses, and other relevant staff open your chart file and it’s all there. Seamless continuity, with no delay of care due to lack of info. I think that’s beautiful. Mental health is locked in a box within that chart and needs extra auth to access, so if you’re going for a gastric bypass, no one is reading about your prior inpatient stay for depression and suicidal thoughts, for example, unless you address it during this encounter.

Meds? Pharmacy feed already in the chart. This is a huge delay of care otherwise. You’d be shocked and appalled how many people have no idea what meds they take. None. Or if they do they are clueless on the dosage.

And how much Lisinopril are you taking? You know, I’m not sure? I take it every morning and night though. Wait, that’s the other one, for my heart. The hydro-leen. Sir, there’s no heart med named hydro-leen.. Well that’s what I take.

This is common.

I used to work at Epic as a software developer. The experience with MyChart isn't particularly surprising. I generally think that Epic is pretty genuinely well-intentioned, as companies go, but they're not particularly incentivized to put more than the bare minimum of effort in this process, since the number of patients who want to opt out is very low, and it's in Epic's interest for patients to be signed up (not, I think, for nefarious reasons like selling data; Care Everywhere data is covered by HIPAA and misuse would be a serious legal liability for Epic. But having more patients lets them tout their exchange numbers, etc).

Some of this can also probably be said about the hospital itself. They probably slapped together a process needed to meet legal requirements, but don't put much effort into it beyond that. It wouldn't surprise me if they simply didn't have the resources to spare for it.

“And employees th…” what?