Unless you have in some miraculous way lived a life of perfect health and have never seen a doctor, you have a set of medical records. You probably have several different sets if you have seen several doctors or been treated at several hospitals.
There are good reasons why you should make sure to have a copy of your records or at least have rapid access to them. It can be a matter of safety. About 80,000 people die each year in the United States because of medical mistakes caused by doctors not having the correct records on hand. If you see several different doctors for different problems, there may not be one complete set of records,
Federal law says you have a right to have a copy of your medical records, although you may be charged a fee for copying paper records. Some large health systems can send you summaries of your records electronically or may have secure patient portals online where you can look at these summaries, If you are on Medicare or are a veteran, you may be able to access your records using the government's Blue Button program at http://bluebuttonconnector.healthit.gov/.
If you get a copy of your medical records, your doctor or hospital still must keep a copy for their files.
Once you have a copy of your electronic records, you can organize them using one of several computer applications available. These applications can help you keep track of your medications, test results, and appointments for you and your whole family. Some applications can even import and store x-ray and other medical scans.
If you have a copy of your medical records, you can share that information as you see fit. Instead of having to wait for one doctor's office to get around to sending the other doctor's office all your health information, you can do it yourself. This can also get around what is called "data lock," where one office cannot read another office's records because of different computer systems.
A last word: If you have your medical records on your home computer or smartphone, protect that information. Create and use strong passwords and change them every few months.
