Medical Records

As a parent and an advocate for your child, you have the right to all medical information pertaining to your child. To get these records, you must request them from the "Records Department" of the hospital or doctor's office.  Most hospitals do charge a fee, but if you are newly diagnosed, I would try to once again, let the doctor or nurse handle the records transfer so charges are not incurred.  However, you really should keep your own copy as well as things progress.  You can many times call ahead and make the request and then the copies are ready when you get there.  Some places require payment in advance for the copies.  Don't let that stop you. 

Make sure you have the number of the hospital’s medical records dept. and the imaging/ radiology dept. of the places your child has been.  In most cases, you can obtain copies of the results of the scans (the written report) and the actual scan itself within a day or two. 

If you have an issue getting results quickly through your doctor or nurse, you can call the medical records dept. and check to see if the final written report from the recent scan(s) are on file, if so, if they are ready.  The medical records dept. won’t disclose any information to you other than if they have them.  But if/when they have them, you can request a copy and pick them up soon after.  At the same time, put in a call in to the imaging/ radiology dept. and put in a request for a copy of the CT, MRI, x-ray, etc… scans onto a disk and pick it up at the same time as the written report; some hospitals may have a fee for this too.  

It is strongly urged to make a folder and keep this information well-categorized for your own personal files and in the event a new doctor must be seen and the scans and reports are requested you won't have to request them again. Also strongly urged is to have a copy of the scans and written reports sent to any out-of-town doctors who may be following the child’s progression through and after treatment. Put in a request to have the doctor or nurse send the report(s) and disk(s) out after the scan(s) follow-up meeting with the doc.
 
Click here to see additional information from the Cancer Survivors Project Organization about accessing your medical records