What Nobody Tells You About Reading Your Own Chart

Patients can get their records now which is good. But nobody warns you that youre going to read words about yourself that were written for another doctor, not for you.

I had a patient last week who saw the word obese in her chart and was genuinely upset. Not because it was wrong but because nobody said it to her face, it was just sitting there in a document she found on a Tuesday night.

the language isnt meant to be kind, its meant to be short

Clinical notes are written fast, between patients, for someone else who reads them fast. Theyre not cruel, theyre just efficient. But efficient reads as cold when its about your own body.

My advice, and I say this to people all the time now, is dont read your results alone at night. Read them when you can call someone and ask what it means. Half the panic is not knowing if a word is serious or just a word.

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