I Need To Get My Dad's Medical Records

When I was in medical school, we worked on helping hospital systems adopt electronic medical records (EMRs). The idea was simple: why cart around all of this paper when we can digitize it and make it easily available to patients and their doctors?

Years later, we still haven't realized the dream of making medical records easy for everyone to access.

How do you get your dad’s medical records?

Your doctor may or may not have your records in digital form, despite regulatory deadlines for their adoption. More commonly, even if your records are digital, you may not have full online access to them.

I LOVE when I can hop onto my doctor's website, log in securely, and see all of my meetings, summaries, lab results, and billing statements. Being tech-savvy saves me a ton of time by bypassing all the middlemen.

But you know who DOESN'T love that? Older adults who are not able to use these electronic record systems. For them, these are barriers to maintaining their medical independence.

What are your options when you need your dad’s medical records?

-One approach is via access to the online portal where his records are held. If he already has an account, you can use it (provided he has his password and has shared it with you). If he does not have access set up, you will likely need him to sign off on the account's initiation.

-When you want his records transferred either to another doctor or yourself, he’ll need to sign a Release of Information (ROI) specifying which records he wants and where he would like them sent.

As you can see, for someone facing cognitive decline or dementia, either of these paths could be difficult or impossible.

If all else fails, and your parent is not able to consent, you may require authorization as a power of attorney to perform these requests. If you have not secured power of attorney prior to your parent’s loss of their legal ability to consent, you may first need to get that granted by a judge.

The above is not legal advice. I am not an attorney. These are merely my observations of scenarios over the years.

My suggestion is to call me before the NEED strikes. Get this information pipeline ironed out before it’s an emergency.

I will help you set up an approach to accessing your dad’s medical information that keeps him safe and lets you rest knowing his critical records aren’t locked up out of reach.