25 years ago when I was an intern, I worked for a healthcare software company on the interface team. Our job was to get records out of a hospital’s system and into a home care provider’s system. We were an early proponent of the HL7 standard and our customers were thrilled with not having to repeat information like you experienced.
But as you saw (pun intended), it hasn’t gone far. Every time I see my doctor I have to fill out the same forms and repeat the same information. Too bad my work didn’t go far.
Your doctor shouldn't be having you fill out the exact same information. Review of systems (like if you have a cough, etc) is fine, but all of your past history? It should just be what has changed or been added to your problem list since the last time they saw you.
It's like that in some places. Typically, the consequence is that you'll get a phonebook-sized file in no time, with so much cruft accumulated from prior encounters that the file will be next to useless.
This is a great point. As someone who receives a lot of medical records from various exports, I can just say that hundreds of pages for a healthy 11 YO only makes it easier to miss the important parts.
This just seems like lazy doctoring compounded by busy schedules. If you can't summarize what's going on succinctly, what was the point of all that training? God forbid you spend a little more time on patients.
But as you saw (pun intended), it hasn’t gone far. Every time I see my doctor I have to fill out the same forms and repeat the same information. Too bad my work didn’t go far.