When No News Is Bad

If you haven't heard back about the results of a mammogram, PSA, or cholesterol check, don't assume you're fine.

A new study from Weill Cornell Medical College suggests there's a good chance, instead, that your test results got lost in a swamp of paperwork.

Dr. Lawrence Casalino and several colleagues at Cornell reviewed the medical records of a random sampling of more than 5,000 patients at 23 primary care clinics across the U.S. The researchers were distressed, but not surprised, to find that one of every 14 abnormal test results was never reported to the patient. And in some practices, the reporting rate was significantly worse.

Failure rates were highest in offices that use a combination of electronic and paper records.

Casalino urges patients to take charge.
"If you don't get the result you're waiting for," he tells HealthDay, "you really should call the doctor's office and ask for it."

He tells Science News that he decided to do the study after a close family member's doctor failed to relay results that could have been life-threatening.

It's one thing to ask somebody who's healthy to "take charge" of their medical care. Quite another for someone old or sick.

Have any of you had a similar experience —- some time when important medical info about you or a loved one fell through the cracks? What happened? And what would have helped?