Articles on requesting, checking, correcting, organizing, and sharing health records, images, results, and summaries across care settings. This page lists all 10 Connected Care Guide guides on the topic, each with its opening lines so you can pick the one that matches your question.
Connected Care Guide is an independent publication. These guides are for education and do not replace care from a qualified professional.
Guides in this section
Records Did Not Arrive: A Date-and-Confirmation Log for Care Coordination
If you asked a doctor's office, hospital, or specialist to send your medical records and they still haven't shown up, the fastest path forward is a written log: the date you asked, exactly how you asked, who confirmed it, and what confirmation number or reference they gave you.
Sharing Medical Images With a Specialist: The Image File and Report Are Different
A specialist referral often comes with a request that sounds simple: “Send over your imaging.” But an imaging study is really made up of two separate items, and sending only one of them is one of the most common reasons a specialist’s office has to delay or reschedule a consultation.
Patient Matching Questions: How to Reduce Record Mix-Ups Across Care Settings
Patient matching questions come down to four details: your full legal name, date of birth, current address, and phone number. When any one of these is outdated or entered differently between offices, a health system may fail to link your records, or in rare cases, mix your file with someone else's.
Who Receives the Result? Questions for Tracking Information Across a Care Team
Every test result needs an owner — someone who receives it, reviews it, and tells you what happens next. When more than one clinician is involved in your care, that ownership isn't automatic. Ask who receives each result and who follows up, every time.
Health Record Fees, Timing, and Format: Questions to Ask When You Need a Copy
Health record fees, response timing, and file format all vary by office, and HIPAA's right of access sets only a federal floor for each one. When you request a copy of your health records, understanding that floor helps you ask sharper questions and notice an answer that doesn't add up.
Proxy Access to Health Records: Questions to Ask Before Sharing a Patient Portal
Proxy access means someone else — a spouse, an adult child, a caregiver — can see a patient's health information through a patient portal. There are two very different ways this happens: a patient shares their own login, or a health system sets up a separate, authorized proxy account.
How to Correct an Error in Your Health Record Before a Specialist Visit
If you spot a mistake in your health record before a specialist visit — a wrong medication, an old diagnosis, a missing allergy — you have the right to get a copy of the record, review it, and ask the provider who created the entry to correct it.
How to Get, Check, and Share Your Health Records for Care Coordination
You have a legal right to get copies of your health records, check them for accuracy, and have them sent directly to any doctor or specialist you choose — usually within 30 days, and often within minutes through a patient portal.
A Personal Care Timeline: How to Organize Events When More Than One Team Is Involved
A personal care timeline is a single, dated record you keep yourself, listing each transition between clinicians, offices, or health systems, who was involved, and what is still unresolved. It is not a medical record.
One-Page Health Summary for a New Care Team
A one-page health summary is a short, plain-language sheet you bring to a new doctor, specialist, or clinic. It lists your current medicines, allergies, main conditions, recent tests, and top questions.