Prescription for Patient Records
By Marilyn McMahon
Santa Barbara News Press
April 11, 2000

We keep financial, car and pet records, but how many of us keep our medical records?

Very few, according to Dr. Marie Savard, a nurse-turned-doctor-turned-patients'-rights champion.

"A majority of Americans rely on strangers to keep their vital medical information up to date, in order and accessible -- when the only person you can really depend on for this information is you," she said. "Imagine not receiving your monthly bank statement and trusting the bank was taking care of things with no chance of error," said Savard during a telephone interview from New York City, where she was attending a medical conference.

The necessity of individuals keeping track of their medical records will be Savard's focus when she speaks at a May 12 seminar sponsored by the American Heart Association, Western States Affiliate. Savard's presentation will be during a luncheon from noon to 2 pm at Fess Parker's DoubleTree Resort. Health professionals will be on hand from 10 to 11:30 am to perform bone density, cholesterol and blood pressure screenings and provide information on exercise and nutrition.

Women, especially, benefit from maintaining these records, according to Savard.

"The number one complaint of patients, women primarily, about their doctors is that their concerns are not taken seriously. They will have more confidence and their doctors will take their concerns seriously by having their medical records at each office visit," she said. "Records give them more control and confidence as well as ammunition to see that they are getting all the care they really need."

Records also help patients participate fully in making important medical decisions.

"An important issue for women is hormone replacement therapy," said Savard. "They need to know their HDL and LDL cholesterol level, results of bone density testing, etc. As a 50-year-old woman myself and a doctor who took an interest early in hormone replacement therapy, I think it is one of the most important health issues a woman should address as she approaches menopause. Each woman should educate herself about hormone replacement therapy and then make her decision based on her unique circumstances. Only she can decide by trial and error and starting with the least amount of dosage."

Patient access to their medical records was first brought home to Savard when she became a nurse in Philadelphia, where she has her medical practice.

"It never made sense that medical records were available to everyone but the patient who needed to know the information in them more than anyone else," she said. "I also knew that medical records were never all in one place and rarely available for emergency room or specialist visits when you needed them most. Most states have laws that allow records to be destroyed after some time. In Pennsylvania, it is seven years."

Savard pointed out that medical mistakes are responsible for up to 100,000 deaths a year, some of which might have been prevented had the patient kept a record.

So strongly does Savard feel about the necessity of people keeping individual medical profiles that she has recently published How to Save Your Own Life: The Savard System for Managing and Controlling Your Healthcare (Warner Books Trade Paperback, $13.95) and health record binder The Savard Health Record (Time-Life Trade Publishing, $24.95).

The latter is a loose-leaf manual with a six-step system for managing your health-care. Included is a wallet-size card with a "snapshot" of important health information.

"If you do nothing else, fill out this card and carry it with you," Savard said. "If you don't want to go back and get copies of all your old records, then start collecting the information now."

In the 19 years she has been practicing medicine, Savard has seen health care move from doctors having power to insurance companies to patients having power.

"Along with that power comes personal responsibility, and being responsible for our own medical records is a major step in that direction," she said. "We keep being told we should take charge of our health, but aside from eating right, getting exercise, not smoking, and so forth, what does that mean? It comes down to keeping organized health records."

Savard, the mother of three sons, said she became an advocate for patients' rights when her husband, also a doctor, almost died eight years ago of a ruptured aortic aneurysm.

"I spent two weeks in the hospital with him, and I had an epiphany," she said. "I changed from a physician in private practice to educating people. I always believed patients should have much more power in decision-making and controlling their health information. After all, it's the patient who has to live with their decisions and needs to follow through with their personal medical regimens every day."

What exactly should be included in the records and how can this information help with better health-care?

• Family history: A medical family tree will alert the patient to the risk of inheriting, for example, colon, breast and prostate cancers, heart disease, diabetes, alcoholism, etc. "There may be screening tests that you should have performed more often or earlier as well as lifestyle changes and medication you can introduce that could make a difference," Savard said.

• Medication/allergy list: This will help doctors decide on safety, usefulness and doses of medications for the patient.

• History of prior conditions and illnesses: This important information is often forgotten or omitted, especially if the patient is nervous in the doctor's office or embarrassed to discuss the issue.

• Laboratory tests: A record of your laboratory tests will show important trends or subtle changes signaling trouble. Tests will less likely need repeating or duplication, and specialty visits will be more useful, e.g. results of old bone density scans and blood tests when evaluating a woman with osteoporosis.

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