crankyThose who live in eastern Ontario know that there is a massive blizzard that is currently striking the area, and that is an understatement here in the Ottawa valley. We're talking somewhere around 25 cms. (close to 10 inches) of snow before the evening, with more snowfall tonight.
Anyway, I went to the lab that I go to for the blood tests this morning, arriving just before they opened the doors at 7:30 am. Between the OC Transpo bus strike and the weather outside, the place was deserted (with only five people before me in the line, and some seven of the staff on hand). The weather outside was not pleasant, but the snow had not accumulated the way it has by now, but it was still tricky for the taxi to get there.
Everything was going along quite nicely until I asked the receptionist-technician at the front desk to please be kind enough to carbon copy a copy of the test results to me, the patient. After a good deal of "We can't do that, since it's not been requested by the doctor when he wrote out the form" for the tests, I told her that *I'm* the patient, and it's my right as the patient to have a copy of the test results sent to me for my records and to keep track of my own health. I explained that this was the first time that the doctor had forgotten to put that on the form since I had been diagnosed with diabetes, just over four years ago, and that it was no big deal, but that I wanted my own copy of the test results. Finally, after I talked to the senior person there, they agreed to allow me to write "cc patient" on the test form, as long as I initialed it. So I will get a copy of the test results, thank Goddess.
But, this raises a point... If a patient wants a copy of their own test results sent to them, in addition to those dispatched to the doctor, why in the Goddess' green earth isn't the lab willing to do so? After all, it's the patient's body that's about to be tested and what not, and I always thought that we had a right at any time to our own medical records and the like.
Food for thought, folks.