Please support of House Bill 973, introduced by Delegate Price.
HB 973 protects patients by placing a 72-hour hold on the automatic release of certain serious and sensitive medical test results to online patient portals.
Under the federal Cures Act, test results are often released immediately—sometimes before a physician is even aware of a life-changing diagnosis.
A parent should never receive a diagnosis of CANCER in their child from "Dr. Google" who interpreted a test result written for other doctors, not parents. This result was received instantly by the parents when signed off by the pathologist. These parents had seen results that they then googled that revealed their child had cancer all before the Children's Hospital had even received the result, as it was done at Sentara.
A grandparent should not find out their granddaughter has a new lung nodule concerning for recurrence of her cancer before the treating physician has had a chance to review the report, SEE the images, discuss with the radiologist or other specialist/s so a plan can be made for next steps.
In this case it turns out the child had an infection, NOT a recurrence of her cancer, but her grandmother had already been CRUSHED by the result. The damage and stress that that caused is not something you can recover from easily.
It is impossible for providers to review all patient results instantly with the family member of each child. We can only do one at a time.
The time pressure now is crushing to us as providers. I tell families NOT to open their portal messages until I have had a chance to review their child's scans, path results or other tests and discuss the result/s with other specialists involved in their care (if needed) and then I can meet with them (or call them) and have some answers for them.
I had a family say, "We will text you when we get the result". Again, this is not practical. When you are seeing patients all day long, you cannot stop every time a family member gets a result from the portal and wants to talk about it immediately.
We are begging you to allow for a 72 hour hold on sensitive results so a doctor or other provider can deliver news in a supportive environment, surrounded by our interdisciplinary team members who are all there to help the child and their family.
These poor families should not see devastating results before their doctors!
We, as doctors, need time to review results, discuss results with others, contemplate the next steps and have a little bit of time to make a plan!
Thank you all for your service to our community!
Most sincerely,
Linda
Linda D. Pegram, MD
1520 Buckingham Avenue
Norfolk, VA 23508
Please support of House Bill 973, introduced by Delegate Price. HB 973 protects patients by placing a 72-hour hold on the automatic release of certain serious and sensitive medical test results to online patient portals. Under the federal Cures Act, test results are often released immediately—sometimes before a physician is even aware of a life-changing diagnosis. A parent should never receive a diagnosis of CANCER in their child from "Dr. Google" who interpreted a test result written for other doctors, not parents. This result was received instantly by the parents when signed off by the pathologist. These parents had seen results that they then googled that revealed their child had cancer all before the Children's Hospital had even received the result, as it was done at Sentara. A grandparent should not find out their granddaughter has a new lung nodule concerning for recurrence of her cancer before the treating physician has had a chance to review the report, SEE the images, discuss with the radiologist or other specialist/s so a plan can be made for next steps. In this case it turns out the child had an infection, NOT a recurrence of her cancer, but her grandmother had already been CRUSHED by the result. The damage and stress that that caused is not something you can recover from easily. It is impossible for providers to review all patient results instantly with the family member of each child. We can only do one at a time. The time pressure now is crushing to us as providers. I tell families NOT to open their portal messages until I have had a chance to review their child's scans, path results or other tests and discuss the result/s with other specialists involved in their care (if needed) and then I can meet with them (or call them) and have some answers for them. I had a family say, "We will text you when we get the result". Again, this is not practical. When you are seeing patients all day long, you cannot stop every time a family member gets a result from the portal and wants to talk about it immediately. We are begging you to allow for a 72 hour hold on sensitive results so a doctor or other provider can deliver news in a supportive environment, surrounded by our interdisciplinary team members who are all there to help the child and their family. These poor families should not see devastating results before their doctors! We, as doctors, need time to review results, discuss results with others, contemplate the next steps and have a little bit of time to make a plan! Thank you all for your service to our community! Most sincerely, Linda Linda D. Pegram, MD 1520 Buckingham Avenue Norfolk, VA 23508