Fact Versus Fiction in Medical Records

As a lot of you know, I have been dealing with a foot wound that keeps getting progressively worse. The most frustrating part of this for me is dealing with doctors and trying to get medical records straightened out. I have started to write a couple times about the things that have happened since I last wrote on March 5th – every time I start to write, I start to cry. I am going to save that stuff for another day!

I sent for my last set of records from the Ohio Valley General Hospital Wound Care Center. Even though they are the ones that changed my appointment in December, they closed my file and started me as a new patient, yet again. The envelope came the other day and I was afraid to open it. I opened it this morning and let’s just say, there is a reason some of us should not own guns! I am apparently “problematic” because I chose to get the mistakes from the October records corrected. I have a five page letter with corrections this time but thought I would share one big thing here.

When I was at the wound center on February 7th, the doctor gave me a script to get a PICC line inserted and start on Vancomycin. With Vancomycin, they measure the levels in your blood weekly and adjust it up or down depending on the levels in your blood.

This was in my records for February 28th:

This was the actual script that I was given on February 7th:

Advertisement

More Lying Doctors and I Am Fuming!

The manager knocked on my door with a big envelope – they put some of my mail in her box. My records finally came from the doctor that I had to file a complaint with both the attorney general’s office and the PA licensing board in order to get them. I scanned in the page for my last visit with him and put it at the bottom of this post – that is what has me fuming!

I first looked to make sure the x-rays were in there. When I switched to this doctor, the doctor that did the x-rays would not give them directly to me to take but wanted to forward them himself. My first appointment, they looked at them and the doctor told the nurse to keep them. In my letter requesting my records, I asked him to forward the x-rays back to the original doctor if he could not send them to me. He sent them to me, but they were in the original envelope the other doctor used, along with a note that they were originals and should be returned within 2 weeks. This is 3 ½ years later and I now have them. That tells you right there the character of this doctor.

Of course according to him, I did NOT listen and had I listened, my foot would have healed months before. I expected him to put that in there. For several months before my deciding to change doctors, my sister who is a nurse kept telling me that what the doctor was doing was causing my foot to get worse – now she is enjoying saying I told you so. I did everything he told me to do and that did make my foot worse. He had me putting moleskin around the wound and that pulled the skin off – everything I have read says not to put sticking things on compromised skin because it makes it worse. I can attest to that one! He also had me leaving the bandages on way too long and having a moist wound bed promotes healing.

Calling BS on Looking Old in Medical Records

I am participating in Wego Health’s National Health Blog Post Month. Today’s topic is, “Call BS on something. What’s something that is just ridiculous?”

Back at the end of October, I wrote about getting my medical records from the wound center and being angry. Besides the numerous errors in them, one of the doctors wrote, “This is a female, a 53-year old, appears older than her stated age.” I sent two letters out because of the errors and that comment. One to the wound center itself and the other to the president of the hospital with a copy of the letter to the wound center.

I had two phone calls last week from the hospital because of those letters. Both people told me that is a common medical statement. I told them that I always get copies of my records and have never seen that before. The one woman asked me how old the doctor was and was surprised that he was not older. She said that used to be more common but younger doctors don’t do it as much. She said that if a young person would come in using a cane, walker or wheelchair, the doctor would say they looked older than their age.