<span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Medical records are documents that detail a patient&rsquo;s medical history and personal information. These may take the form of electronic records, handwritten notes or print documents filed away in folders.
<blockquote>
<span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">A medical record includes personal information such as the patient&rsquo;s name, date of birth, and contact details. This helps incorrectly identifying a patient and provides important contact information in the event of a medical emergency. 
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<span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Your medical record also includes details about your medical conditions, medication history, and relevant family medical history. These include significant illnesses and treatments rendered, prescriptions, and discharge records. The information is kept confidential and is only used by healthcare professionals to make medical-related decisions. For example, doctors taking care of you would use the records to have a complete picture of your condition, such as previous adverse reactions to certain medications.
<h2 dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; text-align: justify; margin-top: 18pt; margin-bottom: 6pt;"><span style="font-size: 16pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">How are medical records used in a lawsuit?</h2>
<span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">From a medical-legal perspective, they contain a record of any provisional diagnoses, subsequent interventions, and treatment provided. This information is useful in evaluating whether the care provided to you was up to standard. 
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<span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">If you need your medical records for a lawsuit, you could request them from your healthcare provider. Alternatively, the attorney in charge of your case could also request them on your behalf. 
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<span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Finally, more information is now shared over the network to allow healthcare professionals to have better access to their patients&rsquo; information. This sharing of information allows doctors and nurses to make medical decisions more safely. For instance, a doctor might learn of a patient&rsquo;s adverse reaction to a treatment performed elsewhere based on shared information and avoid prescribing a similar treatment by mistake. However, a downside to this open sharing of information would be the potential for confidential patient information to be inadvertently leaked.&nbsp;
<span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">To find out more about getting your medical records, see <a href="https://justpoint.com/knowledge-base/can-i-get-my-medical-records"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #1155cc; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: underline; -webkit-text-decoration-skip: none; text-decoration-skip-ink: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">How Do I Get My Medical Records?</a>

What are the medical records and how are medical records used in a lawsuit? To find answers to these questions just check the Justpoint.

What are the Medical Records?

<span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #222222; background-color: #ffffff; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">When life takes an unexpected turn for the worse, it can be difficult for us to recognize and reclaim our strength. As a certified public health nurse with 10 years of experience, my professional passion is and has always been empowering the general public to advocate for themselves.&nbsp; Using a decade&rsquo;s worth of medical and public health knowledge, I decided that it was time to share what I know using the wonders of the internet.
<span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #222222; background-color: #ffffff; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">&nbsp;&nbsp;
<span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #222222; background-color: #ffffff; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Throughout the course of my nursing career, I specialised in home care, medical-surgical nursing, and nursing education. During my tenure as a homecare and a medical-surgical nurse, I worked closely with patients with acute medical conditions, and others who were able to go home, to provide medical care and&nbsp; teach them about their condition. In doing so,I learned the importance of self-empowerment, self-advocacy and knowledge.&nbsp;
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<span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #222222; background-color: #ffffff; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">After spending 8 years as a home care and medical surgical nurse, I decided it was time to pass what I had learned onto others. I moved into the nursing education space as an education manager, and now as an adjunct instructor, teaching both students wanting to move into nursing, and practicing nurses alike. My passion for teaching others only grew, and has prompted me to contribute to informing the general public about medical content that will benefit them, help them understand their own position, and teach them how to advocate for themselves.

Knowledge Base

Medical Records posts

What are the Medical Records?