I suspect Kaiser has been working on the system for some time but from this patient's point of view a lot of things are coming together in a good way. I think I've mentioned the ability to email your doctor with questions or quick comments. The Kaiser doctors have made a commitment to get back to you within 48 hours and they monitor compliance to make sure this isn't just an empty promise. This has saved us countless phone tag message calls.
Another major improvement is bringing the lab and x-ray into the medical information system. For the past year or so x-ray requisitions have been going through the computer system so a patient simply needs to show up in x-ray if the doctor tells him to do so. The details of which x-rays are needed is entered during the physical exam and are waiting for the patient when he arrives in the x-ray department. As of just a few days ago, the same system was put in place for lab work. No longer does the patient receive an order slip that is all too easy to lose between the physical and the time the blood is drawn, especially if a 12 hour fast is required. The system is easier for the lab clerks who no longer have to transcribe which tests are necessary and which draw tubes to prepare.
Finally, the lab provides results within a day or two and most doctors try to forward the results on to the patient immediately. The reports have the patient's results, the "normal range" and a flag indicating out of the norm. Not only could I see the results hours after I was in the lab but I could tell if I should be worried. Fortunately, this time all my tests looked great except the "good cholesterol" isn't as high as we'd like. But both bad and total cholesterol are down well under the "standard".
Interesting - my doctor's office does very similar with the e-mails. answers questions, phones prescriptions to the pharmacist from the e-mail but their interpretation of HIPAA won't let them e-mail lab results. They either have to fax it to you or you can just come into the office and pick up a copy. I'll let them know that Kaiser in Calif does so why can't they?
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Bernell
Actually, they’re careful not to email anything other than notices of results (or notices of confidential email messages). Then the Kaiser member has to log onto a secure web site to read the lab results (or see the confidential email). That’s probably how they get around HIPAA.
ReplyDeleteBut they do leave messages on your phone answering machine about doctor and clinic appointments. I would expect those to be treated a little more confidentially. Even though it only says the name of the clinic it could be embarrassing: “Arnold Loveridge has an appointment with the alcohol rehabilitation clinic tomorrow at 2:15…”