Recent Electronic Records experience...PO Day 71

Because of my reverse Total Shoulder Arthroplasty surgery in June 2014 I have been seeing a lot of doctors, some old, some new. Consequently I've had a good bit of exposure to the EMR and to the EHR. Like everything, there are good features and not so good features.

Getting something removed from your Electronic Medical Record is difficult. Five years ago I twisted my ankle and it swelled up. I think to my dying day I will have a "swollen right ankle" according to my EMR. On the positive side, the first time I saw my primary care doctor after shoulder surgery, anemia due to surgical blood loss, and pneumothorax, he already knew all about it and it wasn't from chatting across the lunch table in the doctors' cafeteria. He was receiving daily reports via my EHR. I wonder if this electronic deluge of data must not add tremendously to the primary care doctor's work load.

My emergency room visit when it was discovered I had a post op lung collapse was a bit of a blur and I got Dr. Right's name wrong. Going to my EHR at my hospital's website let me see which radiologist took a second look at my shoulder X-ray and alerted everyone to the pneumothorax and revealed Dr. Write was really Dr. Right. (Not cool  to get the name wrong in a thank you note!)

I am able to peruse days and days of lab reports and results. I don't always know what the lab test is
but I can see what normal ranges are. (Always good to be normal :). No one mentioned it at the time but even my cholesterol levels were checked. However, while apparently my physician can see the results of X-rays and CT scans, I cannot, can't even see that they were ordered. I hope that is something that will be added in the future for the patient's benefit.

The whole network is impressive and we know that knowledge is power. But I can't help but wonder how we keep this "power" out of the hands of malicious east European hackers and curious computer savvy kids.