Benefits of Personal Health Records - Health

Gone are the days when people used to carry their health records in unwieldy files when visiting a doctor. The advances in technology made it is possible to carry the entire documents in pocket-sized devices like CD-ROMs, pen drives and now on dedicated websites who take the responsibility of saving and updating medical data. To keep a track of our medical history and share and use it when necessary, we need to create a personal health record. Let us try to understand what personal health records can do for us and how can they make our life easy.

A personal health record is the consolidated information related to health; stored and managed by an individual. Today, personal health records are also popularly known as, personal health diary, patient health record, or personal medical records. While the concept of personal health records is not new, it has evolved from a stage when these records were stored by the medical professionals and health care providers; to a stage where each person today is keeping their health records by using various technologies such as websites, personal health software and so on. The primary purpose of personal health records is:

* To keep a track on personal health and

* To help the doctors for providing better care through the valuable health information.

Ideally, a personal health record should contain every single bit of information related to your health. The information stored in your personal health record may differ according to the software or service providers, but any personal health records will contain the crucial health information. Some of the most common parameters that a personal health record contains are as follows:

* Name of the patient, birth date, blood type

* Date of last physical tests or screenings

* Major illnesses or diseases occurred in past with dates

* List of medicines and dosages taken by you

* Allergies and chronic diseases

* History of illnesses in your family

This piece of information can be very important in case of emergencies and can save your life.

Personal health records have numerous benefits not only to the users but also to the health care systems and physicians. A detailed health record can be used by physicians to take important decisions in time of emergencies. Some of the significant benefits of personal health records are as follows:

* Empowering patients: personal health record allows the patients to access, update and verify their own medical records. With the use of personal health records, one can also set reminders for health maintenance services.

* Improves patient-doctors relationship: this is especially true when you have a family doctor or a physician to whom you frequently visits. Doctors find it easy to communicate with patients who own personal health records.

* Improves patient's safety: As the patient keeps updating their health records, it helps them to identify missed procedures and services, drug alerts, and important test results.

* Delivers efficient care: personal health records also avoid duplicative testing and unwanted or unnecessary services.

* Cost-effective tool: patients can save huge amounts which are otherwise spent unnecessary on malpractice costs.

* Privacy: personal health records can be kept confidential by using passwords. Today, most of us want our health records to be safe and secure in our hands so that no one misuses it. Personal health records allow patients to keep their health documents safe and secured.

The list of benefits of maintaining personal health records is never-ending and personal health records are slowly and steadily becoming a basic necessity to keep ourselves and our beloved ones healthy. After all, a small initiative towards health can reap great rewards. So, step ahead and create your Personal Health Record!!!!

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Ten things you should know about Health care Proxies and Living Wills in Massachusetts - Law

It is unfortunately true that we often get what we pay for. If you download your Health Care Proxy from the Internet, get it from a book, or from an attorney who does not adequately explain what you need to know about advance directives, you may end up with an ineffective or unenforceable Proxy. The following is our list of the ten things you must remember to make your advance directives as effective as possible:

1. Executing a Living Will is not enough. Although Living Wills are useful documents, they are not statutorily recognized in Massachusetts, and doctors and hospitals are not required to adhere to the wishes expressed in your Living Will. You need to execute a Health Care Proxy that names an Agent who will enforce your wishes.

2. In addition to identifying the Principal (you) and your Agent, your Proxy must state that you intend to grant to your Agent the authority to make health care decisions on your behalf; describe any limitations you wish to place on your Agent; and indicate that your Agent's authority becomes effective only if you subsequently lose capacity to make medical decisions. (Also, it is wise to include the addresses and telephone numbers of your Agent and Alternate, so they can be located quickly).

3. Your Proxy must be signed by you or at your direction in the presence of two adult witnesses. The witnesses must then sign and affirm that you appear to be at least eighteen, of sound mind, and under no constraint or undue influence. (It's a good idea to follow these rules if you execute a separate Living Will.)

4. The witnesses cannot be named as an Agent or Alternate Agent. And an operator, administrator, or employee of a medical facility where you are, or may be, a resident or patient cannot be your Agent, unless she is also related to you by blood, marriage, or adoption.

5. Do not hide your Proxy and Living Will in a safe. Execute five or six originals, one for your primary care physician (with oral and written instructions to place the documents in your medical records), one for your medical records at the hospital you are likely to end up at in an emergency, one for your Agent and one for your Alternate, one for your own records, and a copy for your lawyer's safe.

6. If you spend a lot of time in another state (winters in Florida, for example) you should consult an attorney in the second state to ensure that your Proxy will also be recognized there.

7. If your Agent is your spouse, and you divorce or are legally separated, your entire Health Care Proxy is revoked. In other words, your Alternate Agent cannot step in and take the place of your spouse. In this caseor if you revoke your Proxy orally or by drafting a substituteyou should collect your old documents, destroy them, and distribute your new Proxy.

8. Select your Agent and Alternate carefully. Make sure they understand your wishes and are willing to do all they can to ensure they are honored. Communication is vital.

9. Express your wishes as clearly as possible in your Proxy and Living Will. Clarity and brevity will help your Agent, family, and doctor understand your wishes.

10. Communicate, communicate, and communicate.

a. Talk to your family about the wishes you have expressed in your Proxy and Living Will and tell them who you have selected as your Agent and Alternate. Surprise, hard feelings, or controversy around your hospital bed may create an unpleasant situation and could result in your wishes not being honored.

b. Talk to your doctor about your Proxy and Living Will. Make sure she, and the facility at which she enjoys staff privileges, are willing to honor your wishes.

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New Scottsdale SEO Service -

New Scottsdale SEO Service

Vital Computer Services is new to the Scottsdale area, although the owner is anything but new, back in the nineties Michael Robert Cummings worked for a company called Health Watchers, Health Watchers was a vitamin, skin lotion, beauty enhancement and age defying solution distributor. The company was run and owned by a Dr. Martin, at the time Health watchers was using a Service Bureau to process and maintain the Marketing Program that drove the companies sales.

Health Watchers would buy/rent lists from list brokers from all over the nation, the basic criteria was people who were 55 years of age and older, with incomes of $50,000 or more, they were also home owners, ale or female did not matter, many of the lists targeted the Florida, New York, California areas as this was at the time a hot market to appeal to, and probably still is depending on your product and or target audience. Sun City was a popular choice too.

The point is smart marketing, thats what made the company profitable and successful, when I started there in 1995, the company had about 15-20 customer service agents handling orders over the phones, from mailed order forms and email, the internet market was still just beginning and no one ever heard of something called Google, search engines and links were the buzz words.

I was hired at Health Watchers to take over the duties, processes, maintain the databases, control and make available the rented and bought lists, I converted all the marketing lists to a standard format append all the necessary tracking info and ran all the address information through the CASS process, next I deduped the records and flagged the multi buyers then postal sorted the files and created ink jet files and reports, these were downloaded to a mail-house for printing, sorting and sacking then delivered to the post office. BAM.

And the orders would come in, like I said about 15-20 CSR were there to take the orders, but this process became to successful, the company had to hire as many 70 new people, they went from $10-15,000 dollars a day to $90,000 + dollars a day, WOW! They had a pretty good thing going on there, and that was the status when I left in 1997, I returned to Chicago, Illinois to continue my career in developing successful marketing production systems.

Well today I find myself in a similar situation, I no longer am involved in Direct mail, my focus these days is in Bulk email and Search Engine Optimization and getting companies a presence with Google, I am starting on the ground floor somewhat but with a lot of experience in helping companies become profitable. There are still companies doing a lot of direct mail still but the postage charges are getting higher and higher and companies looking to a more cost effective way to market their products.

is a service with a great history of success, we are presently working on national campaign and it is starting to reap the benefits of SEO and first page Google services consulting that we are happy to provide, we want to provide this same services either in local campaigns or national to the many companies in Scottsdale, Arizona.

We provide expertise in all the Google services Analytics, Adsense, Adwords, Google Business, Google local, Google places, we can be your Google middle man and make sense of all the different services they provide and keep the stats for you while you concentrate on the more important functions of running your business.

Contact us today, call (602) 487-9039. WE are expanding our service to the Tempe, Glendale, Mesa and Chandlers areas very soon.

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Anesthesia Medical Malpractice Is Often Devastating and Deadly - Law

Anesthesia medical malpractice accounts for a large number of medical malpractice cases across the country. Anesthesia malpractice is currently the twelfth highest medical specialty when it comes to the percentage of physicians in the specialty who have paid claims for malpractice. Anesthesia malpractice is usually devastating, often resulting in permanent injury, brain damage, and even death.

Unfortunately, proving negligence by an anesthesiologist or anesthesia staff is probably the most difficult malpractice to prove because the plaintiff, at the time of the malpractice, was unconscious or sedated, and minimal and often unreliable medical records are the only source of information in the case.

Hospitals and out-patient clinics should always keep detailed anesthesia notes in a patient's chart including a pre-anesthesia exam; informed consent form; operative record; transfer notes; physician notes and post-anesthesia record. Sometimes, after a tragic malpractice mistake, records get "lost" or altered; only careful inspection of medical records can reveal post-mistake additions, omissions or alterations.

An altered or destroyed medical record offers the plaintiff's side wonderful opportunities to prove malpractice and an attempt to hide the malpractice. Malpractice insurers and professional medical societies continuously warn medical practitioners to never alter medical records, but in the moments surrounding a potentially fatal mistake, professional and ethical advice is often forgotten.

Most people think of anesthesia malpractice as only taking place in the operating room; however, that is not the case. Anesthesia-related malpractice can happen during pre-operative preparation, post-operatively in the recovery room and in any procedure room in a medical facility or doctor's office. Anesthesia mistakes can take place during childbirth and even before the simplest dental procedures and are not limited to anesthesiologists.

Many healthcare professionals administer sedatives and anesthetics to their patients prior to procedures and surgeries. Administration of anesthesia requires specialized training and certification; certainly, the seriousness and number of complications increases significantly outside of the setting of the anesthesiologist in the operating room. Severe complications and death can occur in dental offices and cosmetic surgery clinics during procedures where patients are under general anesthesia and trained anesthesia staff are not present.

Potential anesthesia medical malpractice defendants include many medical practitioners including anesthesiologists, nurses, nurse anesthetists, surgeons, dentists, and doctors.

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Advantages of Medical Related Technologies

What are EMRs? EMRs or electronic medical records are technologies widely used in the US today which aims to improve medical practices in different health care providers or institutions, such as in a hospital, by giving them a way to quickly and efficiently store, access, and modify their patient's medical records.

Advantages of EMR over the use of Paper-Based Records

EMR was introduced to eliminate the use of paper-based records in different health care institution, which is still a widely used form of recording a patient's health and medical information. According to experts, by eliminating the use of paper-based records, EMR also eliminates the usual adverse effects of using pen and paper, such as:

Storage Costs

Patient's health and medical records are normally stored in a secured storage facility for 7 years. The cost of storing these records is usually expensive, particularly if stored in a secured storage facility normally found outside a hospital or other health care institutions.

Digital storages, usually in a Hard Disk Drive, normally cost lesser compared to the use of storage facilities. And this digital information produced by an EMR can be storage not only for 7 years, but for more than that time.

Medical Errors

The use of paper-based records also posed a number of problems which caused a number of medical errors. Handwritten paper medical records can be associated with poor legibility, which can contribute to medical errors. Pre-printed forms, the standardization of abbreviations, and standards for penmanship were encouraged to improve reliability of paper medical records.

Electronic records help with the standardization of forms, terminology and abbreviations, and data input. Digitization of forms facilitates the collection of data for epidemiology and clinical studies.

According to a number of studies, the use of EMR software can verall efficiency by 6% per year, and the monthly cost of an EMR may (depending on the cost of the EMR) be offset by the cost of only a few "unnecessary" tests or admissions.

Difference with EHR

EMR and EHR are said to be similar with each other. However, there are several differences that separate both types of electronic records. The EMR can be defined as the legal patient record created in hospitals and ambulatory environments that is the data source for the EHR. For more information visit to our site at

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New Scottsdale SEO Service -

New Scottsdale SEO Service

Vital Computer Services is new to the Scottsdale area, although the owner is anything but new, back in the nineties Michael Robert Cummings worked for a company called Health Watchers, Health Watchers was a vitamin, skin lotion, beauty enhancement and age defying solution distributor. The company was run and owned by a Dr. Martin, at the time Health watchers was using a Service Bureau to process and maintain the Marketing Program that drove the companies sales.

Health Watchers would buy/rent lists from list brokers from all over the nation, the basic criteria was people who were 55 years of age and older, with incomes of $50,000 or more, they were also home owners, ale or female did not matter, many of the lists targeted the Florida, New York, California areas as this was at the time a hot market to appeal to, and probably still is depending on your product and or target audience. Sun City was a popular choice too.

The point is smart marketing, thats what made the company profitable and successful, when I started there in 1995, the company had about 15-20 customer service agents handling orders over the phones, from mailed order forms and email, the internet market was still just beginning and no one ever heard of something called Google, search engines and links were the buzz words.

I was hired at Health Watchers to take over the duties, processes, maintain the databases, control and make available the rented and bought lists, I converted all the marketing lists to a standard format append all the necessary tracking info and ran all the address information through the CASS process, next I deduped the records and flagged the multi buyers then postal sorted the files and created ink jet files and reports, these were downloaded to a mail-house for printing, sorting and sacking then delivered to the post office. BAM.

And the orders would come in, like I said about 15-20 CSR were there to take the orders, but this process became to successful, the company had to hire as many 70 new people, they went from $10-15,000 dollars a day to $90,000 + dollars a day, WOW! They had a pretty good thing going on there, and that was the status when I left in 1997, I returned to Chicago, Illinois to continue my career in developing successful marketing production systems.

Well today I find myself in a similar situation, I no longer am involved in Direct mail, my focus these days is in Bulk email and Search Engine Optimization and getting companies a presence with Google, I am starting on the ground floor somewhat but with a lot of experience in helping companies become profitable. There are still companies doing a lot of direct mail still but the postage charges are getting higher and higher and companies looking to a more cost effective way to market their products.

is a service with a great history of success, we are presently working on national campaign and it is starting to reap the benefits of SEO and first page Google services consulting that we are happy to provide, we want to provide this same services either in local campaigns or national to the many companies in Scottsdale, Arizona.

We provide expertise in all the Google services Analytics, Adsense, Adwords, Google Business, Google local, Google places, we can be your Google middle man and make sense of all the different services they provide and keep the stats for you while you concentrate on the more important functions of running your business.

Contact us today, call (602) 487-9039. WE are expanding our service to the Tempe, Glendale, Mesa and Chandlers areas very soon.

iAutoblog the premier autoblogger software

Medical Assistant Training Career Path Options - Careers - Career Management

A medical assistant has the option, with the right training, experience and qualifications, to make a major transition and cross train into a number of rewarding and challenging health care careers.

Utilize your training and go from being a medical assistant to:

Nursing - LPN or RN

For highly skilled and dedicated medical assistant technicians who are ready to explore other health service occupations, becoming a licensed practical nurse (LPN) or a registered nurse (RN) can be an enticing option.

Medical Records Technician

Medical records technicians are heavily involved in making sure data is properly recorded and utilized. Between the patient and the doctor, medical records technicians are recognized as a vital link. They also play an extremely important role in overseeing administrative activities of medical offices. It would be difficult to disseminate needed information to staff and patients without the help of skilled and competent medical records technicians.

Medical Data Assistant

Take your medical assistant training and skills and cross train to become a medical data assistant. The training you will receive in terminology, transcription and coding can prepare you for numerous positions that require a broad base of medical knowledge. Medical data assistants perform such tasks as keying medical data into databases, providing front-desk services and appointment scheduling for patients.

Medical Billing and Coding Specialist

To successfully cross train, candidates must be up on the latest industry insurance rules, medical billing practices and lab procedures. The training that medical billing and coding specialists receive prepares them to accurately process critical information and data about patients.

Medical Transcriptionists

Consider transferring the medical assistant training and skills you have developed to become a medical transcriptionist. Clinics, hospitals and medical insurance companies, to name a few, often value competent medical transcriptionist candidates who can hit the ground running on day one of the job.

Pharmacy Aid

Becoming a pharmacy aid allows medical assistants to apply the skills learned to a pharmacy setting. Duties may include delivering drugs to the pharmacy, accepting store merchandise and keeping supplies stocked.

Physical Therapist Assistant

A physical therapist assistant, familiar with cold and heat therapy applications and techniques, may, with additional training, become a member of a therapeutic team in hospitals, physicians' offices, outpatient clinics and other locations.

Health Service Occupations

Additional training and a strong sense of motivation can lead to employment in such health service occupations as an X-ray for EKG technician, dental assistant, surgical technologist, massage therapist or RN.

Nursing Assistant

A trained medical assistant may even opt to become a nursing assistant to help to support hospital-nursing staff. It is a tough job, often requiring heavy lifting of patients and clean up.

Certified Medical Assistant

A certified medical assistant (CMA) is qualified to perform a score of important duties in at the medical clinic or doctor's office. While non-certified medical assistants may, in many cases, be able to perform at the same level as certified medical assistant, the certification designates an individual has the knowledge and capabilities to form at the highest level of expectation for his or her profession.

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Medical Papers - Read More About Them - Health

Chances are that if you are going to a new doctor or visiting a doctor that you haven't seen in a long time or for a while, you are often asked to complete a medical history form that asks about the illnesses, conditions, operations, medictations (both prescribed and over-the-counter), and supplements as well as any family history of illnesses, causes of death, and other medical facts that your doctor might need to know. The term "medical paper" could apply to a medical research paper, an essay on medical conditions and such, medical printer paper, medical transcription paper, monitoring paper, and chart paper, but even that is going to the wayside of the electronical age. As the electronic age progresses and evolves in its own right, papers (including medical papers) are going to be obsolete in the name of enviromentalism and other money saving ideas that would make all of us depend upon computers without having to lift a pen ever again. By electronically storing your med ical records without using medical papers, your medical information is stored deep within the electronical, wiry confines of the computer that can be accessed by any medical professional all over the United States, perhaps the whole world. Imagine, going to a medical clinic somewhere away from home and all you have to do is to show proof of identification as well as proof of insurance without having to go through the drawn out minutes of filling paperwork ever again! But with the good comes the bad, a fact that can worry the living daylights out of you. With electronic "paperwork", anyone can gain access to your medical records as well as anybody else's, which is good and bad in their own prospective rights, so privacy issues are a big concern for patients and healthcare providers alike. The computer's Internet is a vast and strange sea that makes the watery sea look like a pond, but there are other aspects that might help your medical records travel through safer means that continue to keep evolving on its own right as well. Thanks to the privacy constraints, which helps to prevent unauthorized access to one's electronic medical records, you as a patient could get electronic copies of your own medical records and have them sent directly over to a doctor, hospital, or other designated recipient that you allow to have your electronic records sent to. With electronic medical records, your doctor and/or healthcare provider can avoid any duplication of tests (including MRIs, blood tests, and such), reduce medical errors, encourage better self-care, encourage safer surgeries, improve the care of your chronic illnesses (if you have any), and identifying the right drug and dose. But as with every electronic improvement, there are plenty of reasons to worry about this age and plenty of reasons to enjoy the age of computers, it's just getting rid of the kinks along the way.

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HIPAA Compliance Laws Protects the Rights of Patients -

HIPPA stands for Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act. It's really significant for health workers and providers to realize and becomes familiar with this word since it is important for patients and it is also widely used. This insurance act works not just for patients but also for their families. As soon as patients loose their work or find a brand new work since they can not jobs for the same company anymore due to well being reasons, HIPAA ought to be there to help them with their privacy protection and well being details as well.

This insurance act will jobs as being a shield to patients to decrease their well being insurance risks and it also gives penalties to insurance corporations which will commit offenses. It is vital for you to know your rights with regards to your medical records, your wellness coverage's and why you might be denied due to the pre-existing conations. Here are some essential points it is advisable to know regarding HIPAA:

1. Your right about your medical records - each patient has the proper to know his/her medical records. The HIPAA laws governed wellness firms to let their patients know about their medical condition because it is their right to know what's actually happening to their body. You ought to be given a copy in the HIPAA policies and you have to sign it as being a proof that you just have been informed about this.

2. Your rights for your wellness coverage - every patient have the right to get his/her individual insurance and to hold it for the sleep of his/her life depending on the preference. The HIPAA laws once stated and mandated that each employee need to have and maintain insurance regardless if he/she will probably be transferring for a new career or employer. Prior to this law was mandated, after an employer fired a worker, automatically the insurance can also be being cut. This law methods a lot for ordinary individuals.

3. Denial during a Pre-Existing Condition - lots of times, individuals who are applying for an insurance coverage will likely be denied because of Pre-existing conditions but that was prior to the HIPAA was mandated and became a law. Now, any employee regardless with pre-existing conditions can not be denied for getting insurance.

A great deal of folks and patients are enjoying the protection HIPAA compliance provides them because with this law, they are given adequate protection and privacy that they need. You don't must grow to be a celebrity or a royalty just to be protected definitely because of the HIPAA, you are treated nicely and fair.

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Your Family Health History

Your Family History With some work, usually very interesting, you may find clues that could make a big difference in your life and the lives of their children.

The medical records of family members can provide important information on the health of the relatives who preceded them. Medical records can be important tools for understanding how heritable traits of a family can interact with infections, medications, drugs and many other influences.

This research can be done at any time, but the ideal is to do before deciding to have a child or even before marriage. The well-documented case histories can be a useful diagnostic tool for all medical consultations, including genetic counseling.

A family medical history form (pdf 267kb) can be helpful for you and your partner and may lead to his appointment with the genetic counselor. If desired, you can send a copy to other family members to add as much information as possible about the health of the family. Many of the factors that determine our health from our ancestors, so that all pieces of the puzzle that you can find could be significant.

Knowing that some of their ancestors had glaucoma or breast cancer, for example, can serve as a warning to be more alert to warning signs and pay attention to early detection. If members of your family had diabetes, you should control your weight to offset this trend.

Some family genes researchers ecommend sending the form to all the relatives and ask them to fill in medical information, as if suffering from heart disease, mental retardation and vision or hearing defects as well as information about other relatives who know.

If you do not have enough information about past generations, such as your grandparents, you can try to get clues:

Obtain death certificates of state health departments. Seek medical records of relatives of doctors or hospitals where they died Keep copies of medical examinations, hospital discharge summaries, neurological tests, letters from specialists and any genetic tests on relatives

How to know the family medical history Give each family member a copy of a family medical history form. Each can provide information on their parents, grandparents, uncles and brothers,Sister. You may want to obtain information on the habits of life of their family members, such as smoking and drinking alcohol.

When you receive the completed forms, review the answers and take note of recurrent disease. You may already know that you and your mother share a tendency to gain weight but if he learns that his mother and aunts had diabetes, is an important development. We take this information with your doctor or genetic counselor to interpret.

While we may worry about what you discover when you receive the questionnaires, the information can help prevent illness and even tragedies in the future of your family. You may also find that a family is strong. The information obtained will become a very important legacy to be passed from generation to generation. If desired, you can draw a family tree with basic medical information and circulate it among their relatives. As new information appears, and as we have more children, you can add more branches to the tree and so on.

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How to Produce High Quality Medical Summaries

Medical records summary service is of pertinent use to Personal Injury and Medical Malpractice law firms. A well prepared medical record summary service save times by organizing medical records in a concise chronological manner facilitating easy assimilation. It can also help in determining whether a patient is being provided proper treatment for his/her ailment. In the legal field, it can help assess the merits and demerits of a case. The summary service would be useful if it helps scrutinize deviations or negligence from the standards of care, questionable happenings, particular areas requiring attention and pre-existing states that could have a bearing on the case.

What goes into a medical summary?

A medical summary is a concise version of the information found in a patients medical records. Arrangement and extensive research of the medical records such as progress notes, consultation notes, physicians notes, and operating room records is done to prepare the summary. Information that may be included in this form of a summary includes: the cause of injury or accident, entry into and discharge from the hospital, immediate and ensuing care given, what diagnostic testing revealed, present diagnoses/assessment, medical expenditure and negligence on the part of the provider, of any.

Types of medical summaries:

Medical summaries (or medical chronologies) can be:

A subject matter expert reviewer with medical education can add value to a narrative medical summary by bringing in deeper understanding of medical terminologies and procedures pertaining to the case at hand.

Salient Features of a medical summary report:

Accurate data capture from handwrittentext.

What goes into the good medical summary report?

i. Emergency room visit and Hospital stay

ii. Patients personal information

iii. Entry into and discharge from thehospital

iv. Immediate and ensuing care given

v. Medications provided and those in use

vi. Information concerning the injury or illness

vii. Opinions of medical professionals with regard to causation, appointment, and disability

viii.Diagnostic test results.

ix. Surgical reports.

x. Physical therapy, Occupational therapy,

speech-language therapy reports.

xi. Independent Medical Evaluation Reports

(IME).

xii. Medical citations where applicable

Recommended tips for a reviewer:

Here are some recommended practices for a reviewer to produce a high quality medical summary:

In conclusion - Underlining quality:

With these tips, you can go ahead and produce a quality output. You need to bear in mind the importance of data security as you are handling sensitive data. It is also worthwhile reiterating that quality and diligence are of paramount importance in producing a good medical summary. The value of cases usually hinges on few key points that originate from the medical records. Hence reviewer is responsible not to miss any finer details and prepare the report with an unbiased and objective eye.

Author is an expert technical writer for legal Process outsourcing websites who specializes in Medical Summaries article writing. Now Please visit authors link Medical Summaries

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How To Request Personal Medical Records

To request your personal medical records is a simple process that involves obtaining copies of medical histories, physical exams, doctor's notes, lab and x-ray reports, and billing information. Only the patient or the parent or guardian of the patient can obtain access. The following includes easy steps on how to request your personal medical records.

STEP 1: Call the provider's office and ask for a copy of the medical records release form. This form can be either mailed, faxed, emailed to you, or you can request to pick it up directly from the doctor's office.

STEP 2: Ask the provider's office if you will have to pay for copies of your medical records. This charge covers the cost of someone's time to retrieve the records, make copies, and supply postage, if necessary.

STEP 3: Write a letter to make your request if the doctor does not have a copy of the form.

STEP 4: Include the following information in your letter: your name, including your maiden name (if applicable), Social Security number, date of birth, address and telephone number, email address, record(s) being requested, date(s) of service (month and year), your signature, and delivery option (pick up, fax, email, etc.)

STEP 5: Drop off or mail the letter to the provider's office. You should receive your records within seven to ten business days. Older records may take longer.

STEP 6: Be aware that you may be denied access to some records, usually related to mental health. If the provider believes that letting you view your medical records can endanger your mental or physical state, your request may be refused. The provider must put that in writing about his or her reasons for the refusal.

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION: In most states, if you cannot pay for your medical records, write a letter to your provider stating that your financial difficulties are preventing you from accessing them.Send the letter to your provider, at which point he or she will usually give them to you at no cost.

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Finding a Lawyer for Personal Injury

HMOs, or Health Maintenance Organizations, are health insurance managed care institutions. For those patients who have HMO coverage, all of their medical care decisions must go through the HMO provider for approval. This can sometimes cause incidents of negligence in that patients' conditions can deteriorate while they are waiting for approval of care or procedures from the HMO managed case company. If you feel this has happened to you, you should find a lawyer for personal injury cases to look into your medical records and determine if you have a solid medical malpractice or negligence case against the HMO.

A lawyer for personal injury often either has medical experience personally or has medical personnel on staff, making the review of your medical records a practiced and experienced one. The lawyer for personal injury knows what he or she is doing and can advise you in the event of an HMO managed case issue. Examples of problems with HMO managed care are instances such as:

1.Worsening condition- if the patient waits and waits for a response from the HMO about their care and cannot, in the meantime, be properly treated for the problems

2. Irreparable damage- by the same token as above, if the patient experiences permanent damage or worsening of their condition due to waiting or even denial of services on the part of the HMO managed case company.

3. Death- in some cases because of denied care or delayed care, a patient may die from the complications of their medical condition. If it can be shown that the needed and withheld care would have saved the patient's life, the lawyer for personal injury may indeed have a case.

Some of the biggest problems with HMO managed case situations are the interminable wait and the oft denied services. In many cases the medical decisions made by the HMO are made by those who are not even doctors. Another common problem is that when outside doctors are consulted by the HMO managed case workers, they feel such strong pressure to decide in favor of the HMO and deny the care request in order to continue being paid their consulting fees. The lawyer for personal injury can assess your medical records, or those of your loved one, and determine if the HMO is at fault and what can be done about it. It is difficult to hold HMO companies responsible; however it is not impossible with a reputable lawyer for personal injury.

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How to Produce High Quality Medical Summaries

Medical records summary service is of pertinent use to Personal Injury and Medical Malpractice law firms. A well prepared medical record summary service save times by organizing medical records in a concise chronological manner facilitating easy assimilation. It can also help in determining whether a patient is being provided proper treatment for his/her ailment. In the legal field, it can help assess the merits and demerits of a case. The summary service would be useful if it helps scrutinize deviations or negligence from the standards of care, questionable happenings, particular areas requiring attention and pre-existing states that could have a bearing on the case.

What goes into a medical summary?

A medical summary is a concise version of the information found in a patients medical records. Arrangement and extensive research of the medical records such as progress notes, consultation notes, physicians notes, and operating room records is done to prepare the summary. Information that may be included in this form of a summary includes: the cause of injury or accident, entry into and discharge from the hospital, immediate and ensuing care given, what diagnostic testing revealed, present diagnoses/assessment, medical expenditure and negligence on the part of the provider, of any.

Types of medical summaries:

Medical summaries (or medical chronologies) can be:

A subject matter expert reviewer with medical education can add value to a narrative medical summary by bringing in deeper understanding of medical terminologies and procedures pertaining to the case at hand.

Salient Features of a medical summary report:

Accurate data capture from handwrittentext.

What goes into the good medical summary report?

i. Emergency room visit and Hospital stay

ii. Patients personal information

iii. Entry into and discharge from thehospital

iv. Immediate and ensuing care given

v. Medications provided and those in use

vi. Information concerning the injury or illness

vii. Opinions of medical professionals with regard to causation, appointment, and disability

viii.Diagnostic test results.

ix. Surgical reports.

x. Physical therapy, Occupational therapy,

speech-language therapy reports.

xi. Independent Medical Evaluation Reports

(IME).

xii. Medical citations where applicable

Recommended tips for a reviewer:

Here are some recommended practices for a reviewer to produce a high quality medical summary:

In conclusion - Underlining quality:

With these tips, you can go ahead and produce a quality output. You need to bear in mind the importance of data security as you are handling sensitive data. It is also worthwhile reiterating that quality and diligence are of paramount importance in producing a good medical summary. The value of cases usually hinges on few key points that originate from the medical records. Hence reviewer is responsible not to miss any finer details and prepare the report with an unbiased and objective eye.

Author is an expert technical writer for legal Process outsourcing websites who specializes in Medical Summaries article writing. Now Please visit authors link Medical Summaries

iAutoblog the premier autoblogger software

How to Produce High Quality Medical Summaries

Medical records summary service is of pertinent use to Personal Injury and Medical Malpractice law firms. A well prepared medical record summary service save times by organizing medical records in a concise chronological manner facilitating easy assimilation. It can also help in determining whether a patient is being provided proper treatment for his/her ailment. In the legal field, it can help assess the merits and demerits of a case. The summary service would be useful if it helps scrutinize deviations or negligence from the standards of care, questionable happenings, particular areas requiring attention and pre-existing states that could have a bearing on the case.

What goes into a medical summary?

A medical summary is a concise version of the information found in a patients medical records. Arrangement and extensive research of the medical records such as progress notes, consultation notes, physicians notes, and operating room records is done to prepare the summary. Information that may be included in this form of a summary includes: the cause of injury or accident, entry into and discharge from the hospital, immediate and ensuing care given, what diagnostic testing revealed, present diagnoses/assessment, medical expenditure and negligence on the part of the provider, of any.

Types of medical summaries:

Medical summaries (or medical chronologies) can be:

A subject matter expert reviewer with medical education can add value to a narrative medical summary by bringing in deeper understanding of medical terminologies and procedures pertaining to the case at hand.

Salient Features of a medical summary report:

Accurate data capture from handwrittentext.

What goes into the good medical summary report?

i. Emergency room visit and Hospital stay

ii. Patients personal information

iii. Entry into and discharge from thehospital

iv. Immediate and ensuing care given

v. Medications provided and those in use

vi. Information concerning the injury or illness

vii. Opinions of medical professionals with regard to causation, appointment, and disability

viii.Diagnostic test results.

ix. Surgical reports.

x. Physical therapy, Occupational therapy,

speech-language therapy reports.

xi. Independent Medical Evaluation Reports

(IME).

xii. Medical citations where applicable

Recommended tips for a reviewer:

Here are some recommended practices for a reviewer to produce a high quality medical summary:

In conclusion - Underlining quality:

With these tips, you can go ahead and produce a quality output. You need to bear in mind the importance of data security as you are handling sensitive data. It is also worthwhile reiterating that quality and diligence are of paramount importance in producing a good medical summary. The value of cases usually hinges on few key points that originate from the medical records. Hence reviewer is responsible not to miss any finer details and prepare the report with an unbiased and objective eye.

Author is an expert technical writer for legal Process outsourcing websites who specializes in Medical Summaries article writing. Now Please visit authors link Medical Summaries

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What Are Healthcare Software Solutions And What is Their Need?

The healthcare industry has seen tremendous change and growth in the recent past. With healthcare reforms implemented, the dynamics of the industry has seen volcanic change that drives the need of custom automated solutions for healthcare companies. Talk about insurance companies, hospitals, insurance agents, and government agencies: Everybody needs to leverage its effectiveness through various types of software solutions to cater to the needs of information dissemination, guideline compliance and being up-to-date for the consumers.

Healthcare industry comprising medicine, dentistry, nursing, pharmacy and allied health need automated healthcare software. Going by global healthcare industry's standard classification, the healthcare has been classified including, biotechnology, diagnostic substances, drug delivery, drug manufacturers, hospitals, medical equipment and instruments, diagnostic laboratories, nursing homes and providers of health care plans.

Health IT will see a major boost with the implementation of healthcare reforms. Till now, there has not been too much investment in IT sector by the healthcare industry. But with the requirements asking for more focus and attention, Health IT will get increased funding.

It goes without saying that The IT departments of healthcare industry suffer from poor infrastructure. The need of custom automated software is there but the investment needs to be made. Without doubt, investment is made when there are some chances of return. But as the healthcare companies and entities would need to comply with the new healthcare standards, they will have to cut their costs in other areas and try to invest in this.
If you want to go for some statistics, let's consider a report by Commonwealthfund. The report says that the adoption of electronic health records could produce efficiency and safety savings of $142 billion in U.S. physician offices and $371 billion in U.S. hospitals till 2020. But cost of around $156 billion over five years, with an additional $48 billion in operating costs is also associated with it. But this is something that can be pursued given the betterment it offers to the industry.

When we talk about Health IT, it could include, electronic medical records (EMRs), electronic health records (EHRs), personal health records (PHRs), payor-based health records (PBHRs), and electronic prescribing (e-prescribing). All these systems need to be developed in a robust manner to ensure that the dictums of healthcare reforms are fully complied to.

Some features of HIT include:

* Electronic Health Records (EHRs)
* Electronic Medical Rec ords (EMR)
* Personal Health Records (PHRs)
* Payor-based Health Records (PBHRs)
* Electronic Prescribing (e-Prescribing)
* Financial/Billing/Administrative Systems
* Computerized Practitioner Order Entry (CPOE) Systems

Apart from these, healthcare software outsourcing could mean: cardiology software, clinical software, dental practice software, electronic medical records software, EMS software, health care software, health insurance software, healthcare case management, healthcare contract management, medical appointment software, medical billing, medical equipment software and medical staffing software, etc.

The healthcare reforms do not simply ask healthcare companies to comply with some norms but also the insurance companies, which provide financial stability and securities to consumers.

Healthcare reforms ask every state to build a health insurance exchange, which is a huge challenge, given its newness and wanted functionality. The states will be depending upon big or innovative healthcare software companies to come ahead and provide the solutions, set up systems who could sustain the operations of these exchanges and run them smoothly, and also provide customer care to the consumers who come and do business with these exchanges.

All this mean that the software companies could on a real big business opportunity where healthcare companies, health insurance companies, and state governments would be their clients. In professional terms, this opportunity would be termed as a B2B market.

The development of software for healthcare industry is pretty much custom based. It could vary according to some norms or law, or it could be state specific. At the same time, different healthcare companies could have their own software designed for specific purposes. All this generates tremendous business opportunities for software companies. The idea of tapping this opportu nity can be harnessed by the software development companies for a good reason.

Without doubt, the emergence of healthcare software solution would mean work all around. The one who taps it or caters to it will get most of the benefit.

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Buying Life Insurance After Being Diagnosed With Cancer

The American Cancer Society estimates doctors will diagnose over 1.4 million new cases of cancer in the U.S. in 2007, with more than 559,650 cancer-related deaths. If you are among the majority of cancer patients and survive for at least five years following your diagnosis, you may face another fight: buying life insurance.

Buying life insurance for cancer patients is challenging, but not necessarily impossible. Your chances for securing a policy depend greatly on the type, stage and grade of the cancer, and even on the treatment plan. There is a relationship between the rate you'll receive and the curability of your cancer. Certain types of skin cancer, for example, are considered very low risk by life insurance companies and a skin cancer history may not even impact premiums.

Applicants with common and treatable forms of breast and prostate cancer may be able to get a "standard" rating under ideal circumstances. But patients with a history of leukemia or colon cancer may fall into a "substandard" or "high substandard" rating at best, or receive declines. Anyone with cancer that has metastasized likely won't be able to obtain a policy.

Dr. Charles Levy, senior vice president and chief medical director of AIG American General Domestic Life Insurance Cos., says, "We're better and better able to differentiate the risks of individual cancers." Life insurers like AIG American General have sophisticated tables to determine premiums, where they can factor in cancer types and treatments. The end result is better premiums because applicants aren't lumped together as an "average."

Most insurers will not offer a policy to someone who is still undergoing treatment for cancer. Depending on your type of cancer, the life insurer may also want to add a surcharge, also called a temporary flat extra. For example, AIG American General sometimes charges temporary flat extras for two to five years, depending on the applicant's cancer and treatment. The good news is that although these extra premiums can be expensive, they will automatically disappear after a set period of time.
Cancer insurance risk specialists

While a dedicated life insurance agent will search cancer insurance companies to find insurers that will sell you a life insurance policy, in some cases you may be better off seeking out a broker who specializes in finding life insurance for people who have a history of cancer.

These brokers will know the specific questions underwriters will want answered when considering your application. Many brokers have developed relationships with several insurers, so they know which companies offer the best-priced life insurance policies for cancer survivors. Some brokers have experts who specialize in gathering your medical records and organizing them.

By directing your application to life insurers that will view your application most favorably, these brokers will help you find the most accurate price quotes and the lowest premiums for life insurance. Always check the financial strength of the insurer before you buy any policy and be sure that the agent or broker you choose is licensed in your state.

Life insurance strategies for cancer survivors

If you are a healthy cancer survivor, life insurance is even more feasible. There are things you can do to ensure you're getting the best premium offers possible for your situation.

1. Gather all possible medical records before you apply, from the first pathology report to medical records to treatment records. That ensures medical underwriters have the most complete picture of you, your health, and your cancer history. Having all those records before you apply for cancer insurance will reduce delays in your application process, because your life insurer is going to request them and will wait for them. The information you provide can garner you better premiums in the end: The less life insurer underwriters knows about you, the more likely they are to have to assume you are the highest risk and offer you high premiums accordingly. According to Levy, "If it's fuzzy, we're more likely to err on the side of conservatism."

2. Make sure you have complied with your doctor's treatment plans. For example, says Levy, if your doctor asked to see you back in one year and you haven't been back in four years, get to your doctor for your check-up before you apply for life insurance. Your life insurer is not going to offer you a policy without before seeing the results of that check-up. Similarly, if you've had breast cancer and you're due for a mammogram in December and you apply for cancer insurance in October, your life insurer will likely wait for the results of your next mammogram.

3. Get prices from several companies. Policy costs can vary a great deal among companies.

4. See if you can get group life insurance through a professional, fraternal, membership, or political organization to which you belong.

5. Consider a "graded" policy (one with limited benefits) if you cannot get full death benefits. In the first few years of a graded policy, the company pays only the premiums and part of the face value if the insured person dies of a condition, such as cancer, that existed before the policy took effect. If the insured person dies after the specified grading-in period, the company will pay the full face amount of the policy.

If your cancer has been successfully treated, and you are otherwise in good health, you can likely obtain a cancer life insurance policy. If you can show that you are healthy and your treatments have gone well, several insurers may compete for your business.

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