va doctors notes

[Tom Adams]

I am 70 percent service connected and I recently talked with a va doctor over the phone for a follow up mental health appointment.The doctor wrote some false information in my appointment note about being in combat and carrying bodys onto a plane which I did not say and did not do. I submitted a request to have the record corrected and that is not done yet.I was not in combat and I carried bodies off the plane on dover AFB. during the Gulf war. please advise thanks Tom Adams. 

[brokensoldier244th]

Your request- was it through VA or the VAMC? They are different. You can try doing a secure message directly to the provider through Ebenefits- either they or their nurse will get it and usually add an addendum (its usually titled just like that "addendum"). I usually get a response of some kind, either secure message or phone call within a day or 3 (business days). My clinic is in the Omaha Western Iowa area, so it may be less busy. Don't know on that one. Or the Patient Advocate could probably clear it up, too. 

[GBArmy]

Tom Agree with Brokensoldier. Send a message thru ebenefits/secure messaging, make a copy for yourself. They are supposed tor respond in like 3 days. It will be "I will get this message to Dr. X" and be signed by a nurse or whatever. You then have a documented trail. Something like that you want it to be correct, especially if it is directly or even indirectly connected to a stressor. You'll be ok, Tom. Just be sure there is a follow-up.

[ToxicSgt73]

What happened in my experience from a documented prior civilian diagnosis, that I gave to my primary care doctor (1st one, before I had him replaced) I gave him this info as history, mostly because, yes it is out there, but, it has also been backed off by the original diagnosing doctor at Mayo Clinic in writing in a letter to the VA.

All that said....VA primary care doc 1, notes false diagnosis in my record.....it took me getting primary care doctor replaced, and six months of being mislead through patient advocate, a telephone visit with VAMC admin, back to patient advocate, then being told I would be given an appointment with someone to talk with about it.....if that was okay....(social worker, we are still talking)......
 

Finally got my primary care doctor changed.....after 3 months of seeing him, he amended records......but, original note is still there to see, with amended notes to the right......

***NOTE to the original poster.....you must Verify if future doctors or others who rely on your records actually read the amendment or the original note.  Some say they see the original still....and others say they don't.....

But, I can tell you that from how this has impacted my VA health care journey its a crap shoot.....as to just what you can get done about a 'false' entry....and if you are 'ever' done dealing with that first false entry.

I have been submitted to the VA regional spine hub.....twice....both times prematurely.....to what I was told beforehand as to when it would happen.  

Now, why is that important 1, and what does that have to do with correcting false records 2? 
1. My first diagnosis was misdiagnosis of the neurological type, it was helpful 9 years ago, having a name for 'all' my problems, but it has stopped anyone from looking at my spine, and because of what it was (mostly anything else). And yes, the VA Spine Hub saw the false entry, and stopped right there the first time, noting that was all they saw. (this was in the middle of the time I was fighting to have it removed)

 
The second time I was submitted to the VA Spine Hub, it was like Bermuda Triangle, meets Twilight Zone at the Caluza Junction....

The VA Neuro who submitted me (a nurse practitioner neuro) was very thorough, and I loved 99% of what she did, except for her inferring that because I still go to Mayo once a year and participate in studies for aging.....at the Abigail Van Buren Alz Research Center at Mayo Rochester......she then casually noted that I go there annually for Alz treatment......

So, result of my second VA Spine Hub referral.......the Hub noted my false Alz.....and from there it is like reading a VA Claim Remand....the Hub went on to the tell the VAMC exactly what they needed to see in my record....NOT if....but, when I am resubmitted.....

Spine: T7, T8, T9, chronic subtle deformities....i.e. FRACTURES...(pretty little triangles)...only time ever hit there was with a TACAN antenna that broke off the underbelly of a F106 I was working on....now I have stenosis in all three regions and spinal cord impingements in cervical with probably by the end of this month a diagnosis of cervical myelopathy and the 3rd referral.

Sorry for all the NOTE:s
But, something like just doesn't go away.

on the second referral, I was in the process of having the second false entry corrected, but the same day I read that it was corrected.....I also saw that I was magically already had been submitted again to the VA Spinal Hub and read that they saw the false note and that was about half of what they saw.....

 

So......if you have a false record......attack it....NUKE it......

What I have been told since all this......each VAMC has an office that a veteran can go to and request a record be corrected.  So, what I am thinking......this is what one should do....and not discuss it with anyone else until this is done.  This then puts the veteran in the drivers seat as to just 'what' is corrected or amended......and even more important.....to 'what' it is corrected to.....  

I know some of you don't like long posts.....I can't do short ones.....I know how important this issue has been, IS, and will continue to be for me.....I hope this post helps someone. 

Rant still not over.....
 

About a year ago.....when I started to see that I needed to file a VA claim along with getting on VA health care.....I wrongly thought that I was the OWNER of my medical records and that medical records were SACRED....

What I found out.....medical records DO NOT exist for the patient.....the patient does NOT own the record......the patient does not control the record....and more importantly.....the patient NEVER sees the Whole Record....(let that sink in)....

and if they are SACRED....then it is in an EVIL way......just try to get any records that you don't already have a copy of from any time back (civilian....) VA and Military records are whole nother story.