A medical record is a repository of a patient’s complete medical history. From diagnosis to treatments, prescriptions to lab reports, doctor’s notes to discharge summaries—everything one needs to know about a patient’s health. Information from the medical record is incredibly important for doctors and healthcare professionals to properly diagnose new health issues, track progress, and compare treatments. Furthermore, this information is also used extensively in legal cases to help establish responsibility and liability.
Medical records are invaluable for insurance companies and legal professionals in personal injury or medical malpractice cases. This information helps these entities understand the plaintiff’s prior physical condition, making it easier to evaluate their claim.
Examining Medical Records for Injury Claims
Attorneys and insurance agencies often review employees’ medical records to verify an employee’s personal injury claims. These records provide detailed health information allowing representatives to evaluate the validity of their claims. By assessing this evidence, attorneys can better determine if an employee is entitled to compensation for lost wages or damages caused by an incident. Furthermore, these records can establish a timeline of events leading to the injury.
The Complexities of Medical Records Faced While Reviewing Medical Records
Medical records that provide valuable insights into personal injury cases are often large volumes of unorganized data. Improperly organized records may result in misinterpretation of the events and medical information, which is a major challenge for attorneys in the litigation. Accuracy is the key to avoiding such potential issues; attorneys and insurance agencies must take the time to review and organize each patient’s medical record.
A medical record is also a complex document full of medical jargon that may be difficult for attorneys and insurers to understand. Therefore, not just health professionals but for everyone to read and understand medical data, medical records need to be sorted and abstracted for better understanding.
Medical Record Chronology and Summarization for Personal Injury Cases
Medical records are a valuable source of information for personal injury cases. To help attorneys and insurers use this information, medical record review management agencies apply best practices such as medical record chronology and summarization. Let’s examine how these two processes help make medical records accessible and comprehensive for litigation or insurance claims.
What is a medical record chronology report?
A standard medical record chronology report typically includes a timeline that outlines the complete history of a patient’s medical treatments and tests. It includes information such as the date of the injury (DOI), the cause of the injury or illness, diagnoses, dates for any medical treatment, related diagnostic reports, prescriptions and referrals, recovery progress, and permanent damage assessments. The report often references written notes from physician and nurse visits that are not directly related to the injury or illness in question. Lastly, it may include summaries of relevant laboratory results or imaging tests performed and definitions for unfamiliar medical terms.
How can a medical chronology benefit attorneys?
Medical record review professionals can produce well-structured, chronological reports that accurately and impartially represent the facts of a particular case.
The report establishes the sequence of events in chronological order as sorted from the medical records. It is essential for understanding the facts of a legal case, as it allows attorneys, non-medical persons, insurance carriers, and others involved to comprehend the complicated medical details quickly.
An Overview of Medical Record Summarization and its Benefits for Attorneys
As the name implies, Medical record summarization is extracting the most relevant information from a patient’s medical records and creating a final summary of this analysis. This summary should include accurate, organized, and concise information that can be presented for review in an easily usable form.
Attorneys can benefit from medical record summarization by having quick yet comprehensive access to pertinent information in the patient’s medical record. This allows them to quickly pinpoint critical details and evidence that can be used to support their case while understanding any potential implications of the outcome.
To conclude, medical records chronology and summarization can serve as invaluable tools for attorneys preparing an injury claim. Proper preparation, review, and organization of injury-related records can make a significant difference in obtaining compensation for the injured party.
PreludeSys is a leading medical record review management service provider with two decades of direct experience. Our team of experts can provide an organized, expedited chronology report and concise medical record summary. With our deep expertise in this field, you can trust us to quickly and accurately compile the necessary information to be readily accessible and presentable for review.