Do doctors' offices share our data without our knowledge?

[Anonymous]

There is definitely a central database that doctors can access. A doctor told me this.

My question is: Do specialist doctor's offices access a database to get your medication info or vaccination info?

I had a recently prescribed one-time medication added to my list at a specialist. It was just a med that one uses for a short time.

Yesterday, I had a procedure and the doctor's office sent notes about it. All of my medications and vaccinations are listed in the document. However, I did not provide this particular doctor with that most recent medicine (since I won't be taking it again and it was out of my system).

So, do they access this data from a central database?

Another time, I was at a different specialist and she looked up all my past data, including a random time I had to visit the ER while on vacation ten or twelve years prior. I found it creepy.

[Anonymous]

You sign something saying they can do this, but yes.

[Anonymous]

Yes - doctors, nurses, case managers- they can access your records on a central database. It really helps with consistency in care and prevents errors. It’s very helpful.

[Anonymous]

Sort of. The local hospitals seem to have some sort of database. My PCP was surprised I had never been admitted to the local hospitals when he checked. I suppose it's possible he only able to check hospitals were he had admission privileges.

Google says https://crispdc.org/for-patients/

[Anonymous]

I want any doctor I see to be able to quickly access all of my records. Why wouldn't you want this??

[Anonymous]

My PCP and most of my doctors are within the same system and can see everything from the system, all surgeries, procedures, test results, etc. It's great. But for example when I went to urgent care not affiliated with that system, they had their own portal, but did not share information with my PCP's system. That information is nowhere in my records, including a medication they prescribed that I did not end up taking.

[Anonymous]

My PCP is in the Medstar network and a group of specialists I see is in the Hopkins network. My Medstar MD can definitely see my Hopkins records.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I want any doctor I see to be able to quickly access all of my records. Why wouldn't you want this??

With the 20 min they spend per patient, I doubt the usefulness of giving my medical info to various companies with questionable IT security outweighs the risk to my privacy.

I lived just fine before med records were digitized.

Prob doctors use AI now to summarize our info so there is a chance the AI will be wrong while using our personal data to build future AI tools.

We are guinea pigs.

OP

[Anonymous]

Thanks for sharing your experiences!

OP

[Anonymous]

PS: They also take notes on your personality, so I act how I want to be perceived.

One doctor noted I was “pleasant” along with my race (what they think my race is anyway) and age.

I happened to have one doctor who shared ALL the notes other doctors made. Now, with digitizing, the notes sre more sanitized.

In one doctor note, he said I did not adequately prepare for the test. I did so he was incorrect, but his note is still out there saying I did not “comply.”

Try getting incorrect things changed. Very hard.


OP

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I want any doctor I see to be able to quickly access all of my records. Why wouldn't you want this??

NP. I had a couple of doctors prescribe drugs that I never took. Yet I cannot get them off my records. Every doctor thinks I am taking these drugs. Every appointment, with every doctor, I say, "No, I never filled that prescription." Yet they remain on my record and it has been years. So annoying.

[Anonymous]

Yes and this is allowed under hoops as it coordinates your care

[Anonymous]

*hippa

[Anonymous]

I am an NP. It is hugely helpful for me to see prior diagnostics and medicines which were dispensed, even if not taken. Patients come in with a lot of issues and don’t always remember what they have taken or procedures/imaging they have had. From a provider point of view, it is incredibly helpful. Even a medicine taken for a short time can have effects that are common that lots of folks are not aware of. I cannot think of a scenario where having more information is not beneficial to the patient.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Yes - doctors, nurses, case managers- they can access your records on a central database. It really helps with consistency in care and prevents errors. It’s very helpful.

So if you get a second opinion the first doctor knows?