Tuesday, May 24, 2011

Technology: Massive Fail or Just a Screwup?

I went to the dentist this morning. The tech, who I have been seeing for years, and who I thought was familiar with my history, asked me:

"Have you been taking your anti-biotics?"

I replied, "I didn't know I was supposed to be taking anti-biotics."

She: "Our records show that you have an artificial heart valve."

Me: "Unless you put one in at my last appointment or aliens abducted me and implanted one, I don't remember ever having heart surgery. I think I might remember that."

I thought it was amusing this morning. Now I am not so amused. Has my health care record been corrupted, either accidentally or intentionally? How in the hell do you find out?

Will this mis-information propagate to an extent to some point in the future where I might be denied coverage due to erroneous information, or be mis-diagnosed?

I can imagine a future scenario in a hospital: "Hey, his records indicate that this guy has an artificial heart valve. It might be failing. Let's replace it with a new one."

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