Dr. Totz is facility medical director at First Choice Emergency Room at Adeptus Health in Texas.
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ACEP Now: Vol 40 – No 03 – March 2021Pages: 1 2 | Single Page
The Cures Act Gives Patients Access To Our Notes, & This Could Be Good
3 Responses to “The Cures Act Gives Patients Access To Our Notes, & This Could Be Good”
March 24, 2021
Kyle MarshallI think the title of this article really should be “The Cures Act Gives Patients Access To THEIR Notes, & This Could Be Good.” The information in a medical record is the patient’s, not ours.
March 25, 2021
Mark Baker, MD, FACEP, FAMIAThanks for your great recommendations on both care and documentation. I would take the evaluation and documentation of the patient who may be inappropriately drug-seeking one step further. Ask the patient if he or she thinks they have a problem using too many narcotics, and if so offer assistance. Know what the resources for ‘opiate use disorder’ are in your community. I document the conversation something like this, “I reviewed the PDMP and noted a large number of scripts for opiates from different providers. I was concerned for the patient and asked if he was worried he was getting addicted to the medicines. I offered to help with a referral but told him we can’t give any more narcotics from the Emergency Department because it will just make things worse.”
I don’t have any objection to any patient or attorney reading that.
April 11, 2021
Charles Pilcher MD FACEPDocumenting that we discussed the patient’s REAL problem is key. I used to say “I/we CAN’T give you more narcotics.” When I switched to “I don’t WANT to give you more narcotics,” I found the conversation went much better.
Also, check out syncmd.global (corporate site) and syncmd.com (user app). It’s a truly PERSONAL Health Record platform totally controlled by the patient that allows viewing, storing AND sharing via your smartphone of any record from any EHR anywhere.