I am the CEO of my Body!

Another good article about you being your best advocate for health care. Three large health centers – Beth Israel, the Geisinger Health System in Pennsylvania and Seattle’s Harborview Medical Center – are enrolling 115 doctors and up to 25,000 patients in the OpenNotes study where patients will have access to on-line versions of their doctor’s notes. Hooray!

Dr. Tom Delbanco of Harvard and Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center who heads the study said, “You really have to be a partner with your doctor to do well. It’s your body. It’s your record. It’s your illness. You should have ready access to everything about it.” Hip Hip Hooray! He is so right!

When my primary care physician was converting to on-line medical records, she gave the hard, paper copy of my records to me. Interesting reading. Since then, I’ve always requested copies of records from my various back and related doctors. Some make it easy … some not so much.

I was taken back when a pain clinic doctor wrote in my record … “She appears teary when discussing her back.” Geez. Of course, I am teary; I hurt and I am frustrated (usually it was frustration with him – I don’t go there anymore). But did he have to put ‘teary’ in the records? Makes me sound like a wuss instead of a person with pain trying to get better.

No matter whether I like the records or not, it is important to know what’s in them. How can you fix mistakes, if you don’t know about them? Plus, for me, it is helpful to verify what I think I heard the doctor say.

As Ed Leonard, an engineer in Acton, Mass. says in the article, “The way I view my relationship with the doctor is, I’m the CEO of me and he works for me.” A wonderful comment. I agree wholeheartedly. I wonder how many doctors agree?

To read the entire article, “Reading Your Doc’s Notes May Improve Care", click here.