New legislation goes into effect on April 5, 2021. The legislation states that patients are entitled to basically their entire medical record, including progress notes (in an outpatient), labs, radiology, etc.
None of that is especially new.
The new federal rules say that the daily progress notes are to be made available immediately. This is where we may see a change that is somewhat concerning.
Two potential issues: we must now be prepared to provide this data - immediately - as per the statute.
In addition, many hospitals that have patient portals have begun "pushing" these results to the patients. In other words, the patient gets the results without necessarily ask for them.
This means the patient often gets the results before we do.
Be prepared for plenty of questions like "The MCHC on my CBC is low. What does that mean"? Along with discussions of every incidentaloma on every scan.
