records for years.

Apparently just getting on board with EHR system. ( Electronic Health Records).
Hell, just getting on board with computers, actually.
Many people here have computers but lack even the most basic understanding of how to do anything but type on them.

The information is only as good as the person who is putting the information in the computer. I will tell you this much. Back in 1995 when I worked at the VA Hospital in TN. All the offices and clinics and even the pharmacy was connected. You could type up a name on the computer and you can see everything that is on the patient and even the medications he/she is on. That is invaluable because as we get older we forget to tell the doctor everything. I know that my local pharmacy and the express scripts can both see what my medications are. These things are very important especially if a person ends up in an emergency room and unable to speak. What I have done because I am on so many medications I type my doctors name and his field he is in and then the medications he gives me. I have one sheet with each dr and medications they give me. I update every so often because it changes sometimes. Then when I go to my doctors appointment or a new doctor instead of having to write ea drug I just hand it to the nurse. It saves time.

I would strongly urge you to make an appointment with the hospital administrator. Also, I would notify Medicare, especially if the hospital isn't willing to talk to you, and I'd let the hospital know that's what I intended to do. If it's happening to you, it's happening to everyone else, too.

As for digitalized records, I love them. If they're done correctly, the cut down on misinformation, mistakes, etc. The Navy and VA have been using them for years. Sure did make my job easier, and now I can access my records easily for my civilian Dr.

Good luck!

I am retired Social Worker who has been in charge of QA at various times.
Actually, I did just call the hospital Medical Records person and found her to be a very sharp person, we had a good long talk about the problem and I do feel she is going to do prompt follow up.
Wish our town had more people like her.
I miss working with intelligent professionals...sigh.

There are many competing programs and they don't *talk* to each other very well.

The VA has the best system in the country, imo.

but it would be nice if the various systems would talk to each other!

The huge Rheumatology practice just went electronic last April, and has had problems with the system running slow and crashing. The GP has always been computer savvy. I suspect he knew what he was buying, and the Rheumatology practice either had no idea what to buy and/or went cheap!

We spent over 2 months fighting with the company administering my employer's self insurance program. They kept flipping our plan from the local plant's version to the corporate version. The biggest problem was that the clerks had no information on their screens that would show what happened.