Maintaining your health is one of the most important things you can do with your life. It’s right up there with your job, family and financial well-being.
Joining this practice is a wise commitment and an excellent step toward maintaining good health. Another step in the right direction would be to develop your own personal health record.
A personal health record (PHR) is an accumulation of your personal health information that is organized and easily accessible to you, to important family members and to your health care providers. This can be accomplished in one of three ways – by written records that you keep at home, software on your personal computer, or by records maintained on the Internet and accessed by a secure password.
Your PHR should contain the following information according to AHIMA (the American Health Information Management Association):
• Personal identification, full name and birthdate
• People to contact in case of emergency
• Names, addresses and phone numbers of physician, dentist and consultants
• Health insurance information
• Living Wills, advance directives, medical power of attorney or any other legal documents related to your health
• Organ donor information
• Dates of significant illnesses, surgeries and hospitalizations
• Medications including dosages
• List and dates of immunizations
• List of allergies or intolerances to medications or other materials like latex
• Family medical history
• Recent physical examination
• Consultants opinions
• Important test results; eye and dental records
• Correspondence between you and your health care providers
• Any educational materials relating to your health
• Diet and exercise information
• Any other information pertinent to your health
We at Virginia Beach Premier Medical are committed to helping you develop and maintain your own personal health record. You may receive copies of your office records at any time for inclusion into your own personal medical notebook which may contain a summary page of electronic medical information that we have on file for you at the office along with copies of progress notes and important test results. We can also provide blank health information forms that you can fill out and keep with your personal records. If you wish, we can even provide a printout of your personal cardiovascular and/or cancer risk profile that may be helpful for your particular situation.
We want your health information to be as accurate as possible, so if you see anything on the summary page that is not correct in the information that we have on file in your electronic health record, please let us know so we can correct it. Dated and signed progress notes cannot be altered, but the summary page can be changed if necessary and future notes will reflect the change.