Keeping Your Record Up-To-Date
Gathering Health Information
Keeping a personal copy of your health record involves gathering health information from multiple sources and, sometimes, in different formats, both paper and electronic. The greater your health concerns - the more doctors, clinics and/or hospitals you visit - the greater the complexity of the task. The medical records that doctors and health care institutions generate are their property – but you do have a legal right to a copy and many patients see an advantage in keeping an ongoing record of appointments, test results, prescriptions, etc. Most physicians and institutions charge a copying fee to make a copy.
Ways to Maintain Your Personal Health Record (PHR)
Today there are PC programs and online tools to help you acquire and organize this information. Some of these tools even allow you to share the health information you’ve gathered with other doctors and family members, if you so choose. These systems improve patient engagement, which usually leads to improved health outcomes. Alternatively, you can simply keep your collected records in a paper file folder or in a digital folder on your personal computer or even on a thumb-drive that you keep on your key-chain. How you store the information is up to you. The Patient's Friend, a division of RSRS – Record Storage & Retrieval Services Inc., does not endorse or recommend any specific home-based system, PC application or online system for the collection and storage of personal health information.
When you gather and control your own health record online, your personal health record (PHR) is similar to the electronic health record that most modern primary care physicians maintain in their Electronic Medical Record systems. You can use an Internet-based PHR system to request your records from the original source for you, usually for a fee. Other online tools require you to add your information yourself, by either uploading digital files or scanning paper documents and then uploading them to the online service.
Types of Health Information
Because you control your PHR, it can track even more information than can be found in your doctor and hospital records.
Suggestions for what should be in your PHR:
- Advance Care Plan: A copy of your advance care plan, which describes your health care wishes if you are unable to speak for yourself
- Allergies: A list of your allergies, including drug or food allergies
- Blood pressure, tracked daily over time with a home blood pressure monitor
- Childbirth: A history of childbirth, if you're a woman. This includes how many children you've had and any miscarriages, caesarean sections, miscarriages or pregnancy terminations you've had
- Chronic Health Problems: A list of your long-term (chronic) health problems, such as arthritis, asthma, diabetes, heart disease, and/or high blood pressure.
- Diet
- Emergency Information: Information that is needed in an emergency, such as whether you have a pacemaker or a stent or have hearing or vision problems
- Exercise habits and routine
- Family History: Keep records of major health problems in your family history, such as heart disease, stroke, cancer, or diabetes. To keep track of your family health history
- Holistic treatments you’ve received, like acupuncture, massage therapy, etc.
- Immunizations: Your childhood and adult immunizations
- Major Health Problems: e.g., pneumonia or broken bones, or problems with alcohol or drugs
- Medications: A list of the medications you are taking. Include prescription and over-the-counter medicines, dietary and herbal supplements, and vitamins and minerals, including frequency of use and dosage. Include medications you’ve used in the past
- Prescriptions and non-prescription over-the-counter medicines, herbal remedies
- Tests: Any health screening results, such as those for blood pressure, heart activity (ECG), cholesterol, vision, and hearing, etc. Any cancer screenings, such as Pap tests, mammograms, colonoscopy, and PSA (prostate-specific antigen) tests
- Sleep schedule
- Surgeries: Any surgeries or occasions when you were in the hospital
In Case of Emergency
In case of emergency, especially when traveling out of province, you always want to keep a copy of your identification, like your driver’s licence and health card, the name of your primary care physician, contact information for people to contact in an emergency, and, how doctors can access your PHR.
Security and Confidentiality
If you’re concerned that this information may end up in the wrong hands, like that of an employer or prospective employer, there is no need to worry. Most PHR systems typically have strong privacy policies and, though most are web based, they have built-in digital protections to avoid unauthorized disclosure of your information. Of course, it’s important to check and assure yourself that these protections are in place before placing your confidential health information in any cloud-based (Internet) system.
Some employers offer "patient portals" through their health insurance benefits. Like other PHR tools, these portals can help improve patient engagement. These tools are usually offered by the insurance company and privacy protections must be robust (or the insurance companies place themselves in legal jeopardy).
It's Your Health Information
Remember that, in Canada, it’s your right to see and get a copy of your personal medical records from most health care providers, including physicians, clinics, hospitals, pharmacies, and any additional health insurer offering benefits outside of your provincial health plan.
The Patient's Friend can help you get started. To order a copy of your medical record from a doctor storing records with us, click here or call 1-888-563-3732.