I'm a dermpath and I want to have a couple moles removed from myself and plan on going to one of the derms that send their specimens to me. Not sure I've seen this come up (couldn't find it in a quick search of this forum), but can I read and sign out my own biopsy? Any legal/billing issues with that?
Sign out biopsy done on me?
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deleted314957
I don’t believe there are any legal hurdles. It is only appropriate to treat the specimen and report the results as you would for any bx in your normal course of business. Some scolds will say reading your own bx is somehow less than ethical or “self treating”.
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deleted314957
Shouldn’t be any confusion if it is handled/processed/ reported and billed out like any of the other many, many derm bx’s they look at every day.
Maybe I'll run it by the derm first and see what he thinks. I could see there being issues, as obviously I am not entirely objective when looking at my own tissue. Although I'm just looking to have benign things shaved off, not worrisome lesions biopsied.
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We sign out stuff on ourselves all the time. Not sure what the big deal is. The Hipaa police will likely see that you signed out a case on yourself. Looking up ourselves in our computer system is a big no no (at the labs at work at) but as long as it has a valid reason it is ok.
Just curious, but could you elaborate as to what you mean when you say you've signed things out on yourself all the time? Like surgpath cases? On yourself, not having another member of the group sign it out? Just wondering. I'm the only dermpath in the group, so a skin biopsy from me would go to me directly.
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People in our group do it all the time without having another member sign it out. Breast biopsies, skin, prostate etc. A lot of places are using software like Fair Warning that flags the stuff for IS but as long as it is work related it is fine.
On a different subject, take Hipaa very seriously. Violations of hipaa are the number one thing I have seen physicians fired for. Don't ruin your career because you can't keep your mouth shut or like to snoop online. The software nowadays is very sophisticated.
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I know a doctor who co-authored a case report in which he himself was the patient. Kinda surreal!
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The true self-referral.
You could biopsy your own skin in several places every day and make a pretty good living.
You could biopsy your own skin in several places every day and make a pretty good living.
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Yeah, I was in a case report in this too - the patient ended up going to med school (was in high school or college when they had the rare cancer) and wrote the paper on their own tumor. I thought it was fantastic.
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That is really inspiring!
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I always found the "you can't look at your own medical record" philosophy to be at odds with a standard patient's bill of rights ("you have a right to access any records relating to your care"). Our institution finally changed its rules to allow staff to review their own electronic chart, so long as it was not done during business hours/work. I've only had cause to do it once, which was to print off a copy of a recent TB. I really don't see what the big deal is or why people are so anxious about it. I'm not going to treat myself or start writing notes on myself...arguably that's a line to be crossed at one's peril.
