Vent: Medical Records Department Complained my child has too many records to download

[Anonymous]

I understand people are overworked and places understaffed so I am just venting. My child has special needs (but high functioning) and multiple medical issues. She is now at an age where she needs to be transferred to an adult specialist for the medical issues. We have created zip drives to put everything together from previous doctors and second/third opinions (when things were more serious) since the last doctor only transfers records from their facility. This is the first time anyone has complained about the zip drives. The woman first tried to convince me she could not open the zip drives. When we had to go for a second and third opinion years ago nobody complained. I suggested she talk to IT because every other facility could open them. She then admitted she could open the drives, but it was tedious downloading everything. I suggested IT may have a faster way to do it. She asked if everything was needed. There were many tests run to rule out things and then many tests to figure out the issue. The summaries have some errors and I find most doctors want to see the actual data.

I tried to be empathetic and respectful, but I cannot imagine complaining to a parent of a kid with multiple needs about this. Has anyone else had medical records give you grief for having too many records?

[Anonymous]

No and I'd make a complaint. Is this not her job?

[Anonymous]

I've never heard of anyone using zip drives in this day and age. It takes significantly longer to trasnfer data on a zip than on a usb. Perhaps you should switch systems, but more importantly, the two offices should talk to each other to transfer data electronically without physical go-betweens.

If you mean that the new practice has difficult opening and uploading the files from the floppy disc, and you are the only source of the data, then should transfer everything at home to a usb and give her the usb, unless you can upload everything yourself from home onto their medical portal.

[Anonymous]

I mean she is not your personal secretary. Come on OP.

[Anonymous]

Report her to HIPAA

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I've never heard of anyone using zip drives in this day and age. It takes significantly longer to trasnfer data on a zip than on a usb. Perhaps you should switch systems, but more importantly, the two offices should talk to each other to transfer data electronically without physical go-betweens.

If you mean that the new practice has difficult opening and uploading the files from the floppy disc, and you are the only source of the data, then should transfer everything at home to a usb and give her the usb, unless you can upload everything yourself from home onto their medical portal.

OP here. I always thought everything could be electronic. I was surprised the pediatric practice had to fax their part even though they are associated with the same hospital. The first pediatric doctor did not use any electronic records at all-old school. That is where the bulk of the records on the zip drive came from. If we had his office do it, it would be faxing countless papers. The other opinions are just reports.

[Anonymous]

Posting again, the original hospital used by the doctor who does everything using paper did have electronic records so maybe I could have transferred some records that way;however, if our most recent doctor is affiliated with the same hospital as the new doctor and there was no way to electronically transfer, then I doubt it would have worked from a different hospital system.

I thought the whole purpose of electronic records was to avoid all of this!

[Anonymous]

Did they charge you for this?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I've never heard of anyone using zip drives in this day and age. It takes significantly longer to trasnfer data on a zip than on a usb. Perhaps you should switch systems, but more importantly, the two offices should talk to each other to transfer data electronically without physical go-betweens.

If you mean that the new practice has difficult opening and uploading the files from the floppy disc, and you are the only source of the data, then should transfer everything at home to a usb and give her the usb, unless you can upload everything yourself from home onto their medical portal.

OP here. I always thought everything could be electronic. I was surprised the pediatric practice had to fax their part even though they are associated with the same hospital. The first pediatric doctor did not use any electronic records at all-old school. That is where the bulk of the records on the zip drive came from. If we had his office do it, it would be faxing countless papers. The other opinions are just reports.

But now you have electronic data, since it's on the floppy disc you own, right? You can upload to your computer and send the records electronically from your computer, perhaps? Or download to a usb and give the person your usb?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I've never heard of anyone using zip drives in this day and age. It takes significantly longer to trasnfer data on a zip than on a usb. Perhaps you should switch systems, but more importantly, the two offices should talk to each other to transfer data electronically without physical go-betweens.

If you mean that the new practice has difficult opening and uploading the files from the floppy disc, and you are the only source of the data, then should transfer everything at home to a usb and give her the usb, unless you can upload everything yourself from home onto their medical portal.

OP here. I always thought everything could be electronic. I was surprised the pediatric practice had to fax their part even though they are associated with the same hospital. The first pediatric doctor did not use any electronic records at all-old school. That is where the bulk of the records on the zip drive came from. If we had his office do it, it would be faxing countless papers. The other opinions are just reports.

But now you have electronic data, since it's on the floppy disc you own, right? You can upload to your computer and send the records electronically from your computer, perhaps? Or download to a usb and give the person your usb?

it's not on a floppy disk. it's a zip file we sent. I sent it electronically.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Did they charge you for this?

If they didn’t, I bet they will going forward. First 10 pages are free, after that $$$

[Anonymous]

That stinks. She should have just done it and then vented to a coworker if she was frustrated. With that said, I found nobody bothered to read all the documents I provided for history for my kids. They wanted me to sum it up. I found it easier to pick and choose what I felt was most relevant and then hand a hard copy of those few pages to the doctor during the appointment even when I sent electronic files ahead. Now I pull out just relevant files if I need to send something.

[Anonymous]

Op again-when we got a second and 3rd opinion we were asked to send it this way. We also provided the info to the last doctor this way and there was no issue. I checked to make sure they received it and I just got a cheerful yes and it should all be in the system within a day or 2. There must be an easier way because the last practice was quite busy and we had zero complaints.

[Anonymous]

Posting yet again-literally all they have to do is add the zip file and the doctor can take a quick look through it. We had one doctor ask about a test and I said it was in the files we sent. It took him less than 2 minutes to find it. I don't think they even downloaded things individually. I think they just added the zip. You click on it and everything is labeled.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I've never heard of anyone using zip drives in this day and age. It takes significantly longer to trasnfer data on a zip than on a usb. Perhaps you should switch systems, but more importantly, the two offices should talk to each other to transfer data electronically without physical go-betweens.

If you mean that the new practice has difficult opening and uploading the files from the floppy disc, and you are the only source of the data, then should transfer everything at home to a usb and give her the usb, unless you can upload everything yourself from home onto their medical portal.

OP here. I always thought everything could be electronic. I was surprised the pediatric practice had to fax their part even though they are associated with the same hospital. The first pediatric doctor did not use any electronic records at all-old school. That is where the bulk of the records on the zip drive came from. If we had his office do it, it would be faxing countless papers. The other opinions are just reports.

But now you have electronic data, since it's on the floppy disc you own, right? You can upload to your computer and send the records electronically from your computer, perhaps? Or download to a usb and give the person your usb?

it's not on a floppy disk. it's a zip file we sent. I sent it electronically.

Oooh. OK, please don't confuse the two terms, they mean very different things. You're fine, she's out of line.