Patients Can’t Wait: It’s Time to Unblock Health

Jul 12, 2023

Ensuring patients have access to the information, tools, and technology they need to make informed decisions about their care is one of the apex of my priorities as a practicing board-certified patient advocate.

Much of the work patient advocates do is aimed at reducing human suffering. Human suffering presents in many forms. Patient Administrative Burden (PAB) is a significant source of patient suffering. PAB causes extensive barriers to care, especially in the context of a life-altering, life-limiting condition. PAB negatively impacts traditionally underserved populations, populations with low health literacy, and digital literacy. One of the most common causes of Patient Administrative Burden is requesting and aggregating patient medical records and health information. The crux of most patient advocates’ work revolves around compiling a comprehensive medical record and medical history so patients (and their care teams) may make informed decisions about their care.

Some patients may have some of their medical records. Some patients are starting from scratch. Some patients may have a patient portal; others may not. All patients benefit from having a copy of their medical records and health information, including imaging and radiology reports, pathology slides and reports, and records from all different doctors and specialists, most often at a variety of health systems and practices.

As patient advocates, we face many of the same barriers that patients face when we are contacted to obtain medical records on a patient’s behalf. Tedious and fragmented medical record request workflows, fax machines and scanners, endless phone calls and voicemails that are never returned, all with little to no status or tracking updates, and no guarantees that requests will be fulfilled properly, if ever.

If advocates are going to work at the top of their board-certification or capabilities and scale the number of patients and families that we are going to serve, we must change the way we operate.

As a seasoned board-certified patient advocate in the oncology space, it can take me on average, 40-60 hours to aggregate the medical records of an individual living with an advanced cancer who has received care at numerous health systems due.

This is not scalable, efficient, desirable, affordable, or even remotely sane.

As advocates, we all want and need to help more patients and improve their outcomes while working faster and smarter. There is a significant gap in the digital tools available to patients and their advocates to reduce Patient Administrative Burden.

The time for patient advocacy to evolve is now.

As a patient advocate, what are features of a solution that would streamline the way you request medical records for patients?

No more hard copy paper Medical Records Request forms; all consent forms should be digitized and able to be digitally completed.
No more printing forms to be signed manually; all forms should be able to be completed and electronically signed.
No more scanning completed forms or faxing; all forms should be able to be electronically submitted.
No more calling the Medical Records Dept or provider’s office for confirmation of receiving Medical Records Requests; electronically submitted requests should have easy to follow tracking information with respect to status updates.
No more filling out repeat Medical Records Requests for requests that remain unfulfilled; requests should be submitted once and advocates should be able to contact Health Information Management (HIM) professionals in charge of fulfilling requests
No more manually keeping notes keeping track of the date and person you spoke to when following up on a request; all interactions, whether phone calls or messages, should be kept track of in an electronic audit trail
Need to increase the number of patients one can help serve; wishing I had a swat team of team members, data sherpas or records minuteman that could do the follow up work in a cost-effective manner on existing requests that have not been fulfilled so I could focus on other more important patient unmet needs.
Being able to share best practices and coach others while being compensated in US dollars for sharing my expertise; access to a peer health community as a subject matter expert in patient advocacy.
A software or platform that allows me to easily manage the many different patients’ requests I may be handling, tracking what’s new, what’s outstanding, and what has been fulfilled.
A way to electronically file complaints against health care delivery organizations and physicians who do not provide timely access to requested medical records as per the HIPAA Right of Access.
A way to track the amount of time I spend on patient medical records’ requests and incorporate that with my practice management system

If you’ve checked any or all of the above statements, join me on July 27th at 12 pm EST for a webinar on how Unblock Health can best support your patient advocacy work and practice. Register here today.

Patient advocacy is a calling for so many, if not most of us. Unblock Health can help you do what you love and love what you do faster and at scale.

Patients Can’t Wait: It’s Time to Unblock Health

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