medical records

[123apple]

Hello.  My mother has stage 1 breast cancer.  She started receiving her chemo in late 2006.  Back in early spring of this year, her female oncologist was on vacation for two weeks and another male oncologist took over my mother's care.  For some reasons, this male oncologist wrote in my mother's medical records stating that she has chronic renal failure.  After these two weeks, my mother's regular female oncologist came back and took over my mother's care once again.  A little awhile ago, my mother requested for a copy of her medical records.  That was when we saw this male oncologist's diagnosis.  We immediately went to see our female oncologist about this male doctor's diagnosis.  She confirmed that my mother does not have any kidney problems or failures.  She told us that the male oncologist must have mixed up the patient charts.  She said that she would clear this record note for us.  Please explain to us that what was meant for clearing this record note.  I want to know if my mother and I took the correct steps to handle this situation.  Also, would my mother's oncologist be upset for us to bringing this issue up?  Will this situation affect the care and treatment my mother's oncologist will provide to my mother from now on?  Thank you for answering these questions.

[Cleveland Clinic]

Dear apple123:  It is certainly appropriate for your mother to ask the oncologist about something in her record that she doesn’t understand.  The oncologist should not be upset by clarifying a note or entry and there should be no impact on the care your mother receives.

[Twocapes]

I would request another copy of that specific part of the medical record to make sure it was corrected.  Down the road, for example, if your mother were to apply for life insurance, this erroneous information might impact on their decision.

[AlaskaAngel]

Although I had a lumpectomy and did not have any prosthesis, a radiologist identified my seroma after surgery as being a prosthesis on my medical record. I told my PCP and he verified with my surgeon that there is no prosthesis, but no change was made to my medical record. Be sure to request a copy of the record and pursue it until it is changed.

Most doctors would not have any problem at all with what you are doing and would be glad that the record won't mislead them into making a mistake somewhere down the road.