Exactly. Patients aren’t always good at knowing what’s really need-to-know for their doctors. If the patient hadn’t been upfront with what meds she was on in the case I cited before, it would have caused serious liver damage. One of our residents wrote a case study paper that found two patients who had a certain post-surgical ocular complication that might have been related to taking a “male enhancement” herb, saw palmetto. Who knows how many patients might not have reported being on that herb because it’s embarrassing?
The paramedics love this, too!
St. Urho
Paramedic
Doctor B can get records of what Doctor A is treating you for, just by identifying himself as a physician who is providing care for you and requesting records. Unless the records involve HIV, mental illness, or chemical dependency, there is no requirement for the patient to consent to release records. This is not just despite HIPAA, but HIPAA actually went out of its way to reassure physicians of this.
Of course, Doctor B damn well better be treating you, or he’ll be in trouble. But if a doctor/patient relationship exists, Doc B can request, and will get, most types of treatment info.
Which is as it should be, AFAIAC. The patient is generally not the best judge of what is relevant or not in terms of other physician treatments.
I’ve fired patients that I was treating for chronic pain when I discovered they were also seeing and being treated by another doc for chronic pain, and weren’t telling me what meds they were getting from him. Nor was he told what meds I was prescribing. :smack:
Wow, I didn’t realize that.
I don’t know, I guess I put a huge (probably irrational, I admit) value on privacy. I’d also like to think that a doctor treating me would trust me. Doctors going over my head like that would really feel like a breech of trust, and I’d want there to be mutual trust between doctor and patient. Then again, I’ve had some bad experiences with doctors* and, as I admitted before, am terribly cynical.
*“If you don’t take meds to treat the ADD I claim you have I won’t treat you anymore,” and “Well the only thing I can do is write you a prescription for Vicoden for your moderate-but-chronic pain; and no there’s nothing in between your OTC ibuprofen and opiates that I’ll consider” were two of my favorites, the second causing me to file a complaint with the state medical board.
It’s not that they don’t trust you, but that they are the experts, and they don’t necessarily trust your knowledge. You may not know all of the interactions of certain treatments.
(I think we’ve all had some bad experiences with some doctors out there, but it doesn’t mean ALL of them are like that).