Preemies & Paperwork: Like We Have Nothing Better to Do!

I understand that my daughter was born 10 weeks early. I know that my preemie required an extended stay in the NICU and require medical equipment, medications, and specialists to help her thrive. I put time in with Early Intervention and ChildFind therapists to help my child thrive developmentally. We are still working with therapists to ensure Becky continues to thrive. But as my daughter enters evaluation for high-functioning autism you would think that I have enough paperwork to fill a binder to just hand over to them, right? But no – it has to be THEIR mound of paperwork and their requirements. UGH.

Now I am all for appropriate privacy in healthcare but it does have to be appropriate. So why isn’t it possible to have my daughter’s records in one place where they can be accessed as needed by any medical professional? As long as security procedures are in place to avoid snooping, identity theft and more, I would be more than happy to carry around a card that allows access to her medical records. And then any new evaluations could simply be completed online and then ALL doctors could review everything at will to get a complete picture of my daughter overall. It would save them time dictating letters to be faxed to one another, it would more than likely help in the prevention of medical mistakes and it would most certainly keep me from having to fill out similar paperwork all of the time.

Common sense on this issue would save a lot of time, effort and oh yeah – TREES!