I’ve mentioned in a previous post how having an online medical record would have helped my husband take care of our daughter’s school inoculations as we make the move from California to Pennsylvania. That is, IF her medical records had been online.

But we recently had a real-life experience with online medical records and, I have to say, I’m sold!

My 79-year-old mother-in-law recently had a minor stroke. Very minor. So minor that she shows no bad aftereffects of it. None. No muscle weakness. No slurring of words. No droopy mouth. No mental impairment. It’s as if she never had it.

She spent two nights in the hospital while the health care professionals there gave her several tests — an MRI, cholesterol, blood pressure, checked her carotid artery and several others, so many that I don’t remember all of them.

Her regular physician is a member of the hospital’s staff and as she entered the ER, both her physician and the emergency room staff were able to call up her records — her personal doc from his off-site clinic, and the ER workers at the ER itself.

They were able to write notes about her care, which her regular physician read a few minutes or hours later. He also made comments, which the nurses and staff at the hospital could access at their convenience.

No waiting on the phone for the doc to come so that he could be read the results. No phoning back and forth. No driving to the clinic or hospital to get notes. It was all there, online.

 What a convenience. What a help. What a Godsend.