BBC medical records story

[Adrian Midgley]

On Monday 18 March 2002 14:49, you wrote:
> Isn't that a bit of a worrying admission in its own right?  By your own
> figures, the hospital cannot provide nearly 1 in 5 requests for
> information. Is it that they allocate a certain amount of time for each
> request and thus fail to "find" it within say 15 minutes,=20

Try - say - 8 weeks for an outpatient appt.

There is this problem with single copies of records, whoever carries or f=
iles=20
them, that they are only in one place.  With the division of medicine int=
o=20
dozens of pieces, and the addition of a horde of non-medical health thing=
s,=20
hospitals will very very often find that notes needed for one thing are=20
elsewhere ostensibly supporting a different function - waiting for dictat=
ion=20
or checking of a letter from the previous admission or encounter for inst=
ance.

The figure given is IIRC the Audit Commission's, and again IIRC, they=20
suggested that a new fangled technology called digital something or other=
=20
might help.

My ambitions for medical records begin with a record that can be seen in =
two=20
rooms at once, and is legible at that time.

I suppose we could nod toward topicality by saying that the crypto connec=
tion=20
is to make  sure that when the record needs to be seen in two places, it =
is=20
not visible in a third.

Probably should go back to UK Crypto law though, sorry mod.
--=20
=46rom one of the Linux desktops of Dr Adrian Midgley=20
http://www.defoam.net/            =20