Will the quality crusade be the final corruptor of the medical record?

 File this under "The corruption of the medical record".

  The topic today is the " After visit summary"(AVS).

In my case this was a collection of mistakes,misstatements and falsehoods all neatly printed out in a manner that  may facilitate the physician getting credit for various quality measures.  After reading the AVS I asked myself do I really want a serious medical problem that I may develop to be  overseen by someone who signs off on such a pile of crap.

Recently I saw my primary care physician (PCP) for an annual check up.

Several aspects are worth a blog entry. Today it is the "After visit Summary" (AVS) which was available the next day on the practice's web site .Actually it is the hospital web site's patient portal,
This group of internists is "hired" by the hospital under the guise of being a practice group somehow affiliated with the hospital.Remember there previously was something call the Corporate Medicine Doctrine.

My particular  AVS is a sleek , multicolored document replete with little icons by such entries as your weight (icon of a dial),pulse ( icon of a valentine style heart). etc.

Under "Today's Visit" we see small head shot photo of the physician and a listing of the addressed issues.This was a collection of mistakes,misstatements and outright falsehoods which are now part of my permanent record.

I was said to have atrial fibrillation. I do not have AF. The diagnosis of AF was erroneously placed on the  chart by the EP clinic but was later ( 8 months) corrected and removed from my problem list. I mentioned to my PCP that do not have AF and that the earlier entry was the results of a error in the EP clinic.This was the second time I explained about the diagnosis of AF to him and his scribe with no effect on my permanent record.

I was also said to have "osteopenia of both hips" .WTF. I have had no imaging of my back or hips at that facility .

I was said to have "hypercalcemia"  and "hypergammaglobulinemia "When  first seen by this PCP one issue was a metabolic profile done by my previous PCP that was stuffed with errors, namely elevated, calcium,elevated K and elevated globulin ( all likely the results of hemolyzed blood sample). These were all repeated and found to be normal but some how the diagnosis of hypercalcemia and elevated globulin level remain.

Nevertheless, on my AVS I was told that those issues were addressed.

What is the AVS all about? it is about "meaningful use".It is one of the eligible professional meaningful use core measures. It all began in 2009 with the HITECH act that was designed to "encourage physicians" to use an EHR.There were monetary carrots and sticks. Neither of which seem to me to be much more than chump change particularly after considering the care and feeding of a EHR .

Kaiser Health News and Fortune Magazine have a detailed article describing what a utter disaster the EHR has become.The title is "Death by A Thousand Clicks".