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Just as a road map charts the progress of our travels, a medical record charts our personal progress through the health care system. Every time we visit a doctor, a record is made — a written history of our complaints, the physician’s observations and prescribed treatment. Every medical record is unique, hand written in a doctor’s shorthand, with abbreviations and codes with no uniformity among offices, and every medical record is guaranteed confidential. So, when you find that you need to understand and use medical records in a case, not only must you go through the machinations to retrieve those records, but you must also translate their contents — a seemingly impossible task because of the jargon, abbreviations and the unfamiliar words used. Saving you hours of research in unraveling the mysteries of medical terminology, Sam Hodge teaches you: - how to make the medical records retrieval process easier;
- methods and tricks for understanding medical records;
- his system for organizing medical records;
- how medical terms are put together to give you a head start on understanding medical jargon even when you don’t know what a word means;
- the construction of the human body and its systems;
- the meaning of common abbreviations and which ones are on the “do not use” list;
- the meaning of the various diagnostic test and procedures, laboratory studies, and common diagnosis found in the medical records and doctors’ reports; and
- strategies for using medical records to successfully litigate your case.
Program Outline & Schedule (6 hours)[Part I: 90 minutes]Obtaining Medical Records- Methods for retrieving records
- Federal and state rules governing access to medical records
- Litigation tips for easier access to medical records and what records to obtain
Understanding Medical Terminology- How medical terms are created
- Defining the terms
- Describing anatomical positions, movement, description and measurement
- Sam’s tips for understanding medical terms
[15 minute break][Part II: 90 minutes]Systems of the Body- Learn the subsets of the body to better understand the origins and meanings of many medical terms
Organization of Medical Records- Contents of the hospital chart versus the treating physician’s records
- Medical records organization
- The jargon of prescriptions
- What the medical abbreviations mean and why doctors make mistakes in recording and reading those abbreviations
- The “do not use list”
[Lunch][Part III: 90 minutes]
Understanding Medical RecordsDiagnostic Tests- Learn the difference between common blood tests such as a CBC or an A1C as well as why urine tests and stool cultures are performed
- Find out about the differences among imaging modalities such as a Ct-Scan, MRI and Bone Scan and Pet-Scan
[15 minute break][Part IV: 90 minutes]
Diagnostic Procedures- Learn about the blood tests and diagnostic tests
- Find out the common diagnostic procedures performed on the different systems of the body such as a barium study, endoscopy, arthroscopy, amniocentesis and a sigmoidoscopy (to name a few)
Legal Issues- Find out if your expert is really board certified or has been the subject of disciplinary action
- Learn how to do medical research
[Adjourn]
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