CORRECTING MEDICAL RECORDS

There’s an amazing disconnect between some provider records and what the providers tell patients (or patients tell providers).  Sometimes these errors involve inconsequential things (like describing the patient as a man instead of a woman).  Sometimes they turn out to be more important.

A lot of the time there’s dyslexia in the records.  Left is confused with right, and right is confused with left. In particular, this matters in terms of determining whether someone had, for example, a problem with their left knee before the accident.

This came up recently in a case where I represented a dentist.  The dentist was positive that all treatment had been on her left shoulder (the one that would have been caught by the seatbelt), but the records said that her complaints had been about and treatment had been on her right shoulder.

Because the distinction was important to the case I had the dentist write the doctor and ask that he correct the obvious error in her chart notes.  Fortunately there is a statute (RCW 70.02.100) that deals with this exact situation.  The doctor recognized the error and corrected the records.  After the correction the case settled for good money.