I took my 12 year old to get a scheduled CT scan. They tell us he had this done before 4 years ago. I tell them no. We begin to get into a back and forth argument about it since she showed paperwork he was here at a particular date for an appendicitis and admitted to ER two times in two days. I had to actually argue with her and tell her that didn't happen. So they think I am crazy, show me the file and I see his name, birthdate and orders, CT scan and treatment that he NEVER HAD. I asked if I could keep, they said no, they will take care of it. I said how can I follow up on this, they told me WHY? I reply to them, well, let's see ......I was just baffled. They said they will fix it for me, do the research and I don't need to worry about it. I said, I don't think so. They tell me it will take a long time to get this cleared. So I am going to get my son's medical records myself-in which that paperwork will be in there.
Can they do this? Why couldn't they give me that paper, that has my son's info on it? Isn't this an incredibly huge medical mistake that on so many levels is inappropriate? I think serious action should be taken. But I am only one person? What can I do? I am so upset by this.
Let me please make sure this is clear. They show him having a procedure at a specific time when he was 8 years old. His name, birth date the hole shabang in on there. It never happened--he never had a procedure, surgery nothing!!! The hospital staff then tell me it must be another individual completely, but under my child information. So honestly, am I over-reacting here? Or is this kind of a big deal??? Should this go further than the hospitals medical records office? I don't just want to correct this obviously enormous blunder but I need to make sure someone is held responsible for this error and it never happens again.
car253
They would need time to copy all the medical records your requesting.
Call the Department of Insurance in your state for help. A link is below. Just click on your state.
src50
You need to communicate in writing with the management at whoever "they" is that there is an error in your son's records and you want access to them.
sarah314
It does take time to research and pull all the relevant records. You do have a right to a copy of the records eventually, but not copying them on demand at that immediate moment.
I would allow them some time to research the issue. It could be that someone else presented to the hospital and used your son's name/information. (Do you know anyone who might know your son's information and tried to pull such a stunt? If so, that would be important to report to the hospital while they investigate.)
Had your son ever been to that hospital before (prior to the age of 8)? In order for the hospital to mistakenly enter someone else's information under your son's medical record, your son would have had to already *have* an existing medical record with the hospital.
If your son didn't have services done at that hospital before age 8 (when those ER visits were entered in his record), I'd be inclined to think that someone came to the hospital pretending to use your son's identity?
This is one of the reasons why its important for people to watch insurance EOBs that come in the mail - if these charges were billed and processed to your insurance company 4 years ago, the EOBs would have given you the opportunity to catch the mistake back then. (That's IF they were billed to your insurance, of course.)
At any rate, this is a process that I'd allow the hospital a reasonable amount of time to review, because there are many things that need to be checked. And if it happened 4 years ago, some of the original documents may be in storage and need to be retrieved.
I absolutely agree that you should follow up on it...I'd just allow 1-2 weeks for the hospital to pull records, retrieve anything from archives/storage, and do a review.
Orignal From: Q&A: Medical Records completely incorrect for my son--what can I do?
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