Medical Records Advice

[Guest guest]

Hi,

As some of you know, I'm having an extremely difficult time getting

Noah into the Minneapolis Shriner's as a transfer patient (lots of

red tape.) During one of my many phone calls with the medical

records person in Mpls she shared some helpful advice. She said

that I should have a personal collection of all of Noah's orthopedic

medical records and x-rays. I know that the topic of medical

records has been brought up on this group before, but she shared

some insight that I don't think anyone has raised here before. So

I thought I'd share.

Apparently some pediatric clinics/hospitals destroy patient's

records once they turn 18. (I did not know this!) So we will not

always be able go back to the clinic/hospital for copies.

She also said that it would be very helpful for me to have them in

case Noah needs rods and is in an accident later in life (which by

the way - rods are highly unlikely for my son thanks to ET.) She

said that you wouldn't believe how many phone calls they get of an

ER calling to get an x-ray of a former pediatric patient that has

been hurt in an accident.

She also said that they would be extremely helpful if any of my

future children or Noah's future children develop scoliosis. I of

course have thought of my future children having scoliosis

(especially since I'm expecting), but I had never thought of my

child's children. She said that if a doc were to diagnosis one of

my kids or one of Noah's kids with scoli that they might want to

observe for awhile, but if I were readily armed with evidence of

Noah's progression/experience they may not take that approach. For

example, Noah would be able to say " I was diagnosed with the same

condition at such and such age and look what happened next. "

I thought this was helpful advice and I plan on collecting all of it

as soon as I get a chance. Of course there will probably be a " copy

fee " associated with all of this since it is for personal use, but I

figure it's a small price to pay if it ever does become needed.

~

P.S. We're going on over 2 months now and I'm still without an appt

at Mpls. I have reserved a date in SLC just in case, but that's not

until mid-Oct. Hopefully Mpls will get us in before that!