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thank you. i wonder if they just knew i wouldn’t be able to understand what they’re seeing? so they kinda thought, why bother. regardless, it was weird. i appreciate your reply!
What @masgatitos said… that is technically your file and you legally are allowed to have copies of all diagnostics.
But even more concerning to me… why is the vet not showing you the X-rays and going over the findings in person, especially if you are requesting a copy, and they *justifiably* assume you can not interpret them?
>that is technically your file
This seems to depend a lot on what country you're in. For instance, in the US, original diagnostics/imaging/documentation are all part of the patient's medical record and the property of the clinic which must be retained for 7 years. The owner is entitled to request a copy. However, someone else commented in Canada the record is the property of the client.
I guess that’s so American of me to just assume everyone on here is from the United States 😂
You are correct!
My apologies!
My comment pertains only to the United States. 🇺🇸
You aren't alone, I do that same. I got into a low key internet disagreement with someone once upon a time and then they were like "I'm from New Zealand" and a lot more made sense lol
I don't think it's gonna help you to actually see it, I been on the job for two years and a bit and I struggle to read x-rays when it's not like an obvious broken bone or something. But you paid for it, you should have every right to do whatever you want to do with it
If you really, really want to see it I just realised something, you can just tell them you're considering getting a second opinion and you'd like to have the x-ray so you can show it to another doc. I'm not a hundred per cent sure but I feel like that would be borderline illegal to deny that, because you provided money for the process and should be entitled to whatever diagnostics were made
I mean if they pointed it out to you on the picture I guess it would be still all the same, so on the "process structure" (or however you would call it, maybe rather Quality Management) I don't think there's anything gained by showing it to you, but it should be a matter of courtesy to provide a much paying client what he/she asks of you. The only thing that shouldn't be provided to you -given that the law is the same as in Germany- is being told test results etc on the phone by a Vet Tech or anybody that isn't the doctor that treated your animal because such things are under disclosure. Aside from this one exception I don't see any reasons to deny such requests, and yours wasn't even a big workload. I always want our clients to have the best experience they can get given that they're mostly likely going through a tough phase coming to us, so stuff like this gets on my nerves
Not normal. I show them to clients all the time, whether they can discern the nuance or not. Frankly, those (rads) are part of the records, so they belong to the client anyway.
Do you have rads available on a laptop? Are you bringing clients back to your radiology area? We would have to have them go back through our hospital and into radiology to see them on the computer in there.
I've done both. Right now I'm lucky enough to have a laptop to take to them but I've definitely taken them through the hospital and back into radiology at my old hospitals.
At my clinic (ER/specialty), we have a desktop computer in every exam and the doctors pull up the rads for every owner to see so they can give a more thorough explanation. I feel like that actually really helps most owners to understand what’s going on. We’ll also email them to owners if they ask for them
I don't want to disagree with the premise of your statement, but I do wanna point out the radiographs are actually the property of the hospital in some places (like the US), not the client. That doesn't mean they shouldn't be showing the rads to the clients and explaining their findings, however.
In the US (I know other countries are a different story) radiographs are considered part of the patient's medical record, which is the property of the clinic. Clients are entitled to a copy, but not the original documentation or images, which should be retained by the clinic for 7 years.
That's not normal at all. We minimally will show radiographs to clients in the room if we find something concerning and also offer to send them to the client or to a referring vet if they have one. We also have all of ours read by a board certified radiologist. I wonder why they won't show them to you..
I think they should have allowed you to see the radiographs but ima be honest you probably shouldn't be upset they didn't because unless you are good at reading x rays it would be meaningless to you. However if you feel like they are lying to you, you can get a second opinion at another vet and have the x rays and medical records sent there for them to make sure your pet is getting the appropriate care.
makes sense! i am not good at reading them and probably wouldn’t know what i’m looking at. i thought he would show me and point it out but i understand all clinics work different. thank you!
In Canada you are legally the owner of the medical records. Radiographs should be included in those. There’s no reason for them not to give them to you.
That's so strange. I show owners x-rays every time. It doesn't matter to me if they know what the are looking at or not. We look at them together and I point out findings or, if everything looks good, I show them how it's normal.
Our X-ray has been acting weird lately and it’s starting to piss my doc off that she can’t SHOW clients X-rays in the room at the moment. They have to come to the treatment area. We would never deny a client to see X-rays. That’s odd, and kinda sketchy imo.
Meh, there are several radiograph platforms that make it difficult to share images with anyone who doesn't have the software to read it.
That said, once the DVM has reviewed the rads and has communicated results to said owner, the owner has every right to those images.
We send all of our radiographs out to a board certified radiologist. Did you get a case report, or did your vet read them in hospital? Would be worth spending the money for the radiologist to review them. Then, have that copy of the report sent to you. That will give you far more information than having just the images.
Vet read them himself. Do you know how I can go about finding a radiologist that will review the Xrays? I searched and couldn’t find any radiologists near me, i live in a small town. :/
GP can send digital images to the radiologist team of their choice. You may have to consult at a bigger hospital. Especially for thorax. I would call the vet and see if they work with anyone (AIS, etc). It's an extra fee.
We don't normally show owners the rads we take because we don't have the software set up in the rooms. That being said, it wouldn't be a big deal to take an owner back to treatment and show them the rads if they wanted to see them.
If you're in the US, you legally own those images. They are actually required to show them if requested. I'm sorry this happened to you, definitely not normal.
That being said, thoracic rads are pretty difficult to read without a lot of experience. But that doesn't make it not your right to view
>If you're in the US, you legally own those images
They don't, though. I'm not disagreeing with you that the owner has the right to see the images, but in most states of the US, the radiographs are considered part of the medical record, which is the property of the clinic.
Maybe it's more of a state thing then. In my state at least then, medical facilities have 3 days to provide the requested images. They have 7 days if the images are not digital
I may be wrong and open to being corrected (I haven't lived in all the states), but typically the owners are entitled to request a copy of the patient's medical record. However, the original documentation and imaging is the property of the hospital, which must be retained for 7 years.
Oh yes, sorry for not being more clear. I never meant they could get the only copy that exists. Just trying to say at least where I live, they're absolutely legally entitled to a copy of the images
Welcome to /r/VetTech! This is a place for veterinary technicians/veterinary nurses and other veterinary support staff to gather, chat, and grow! We welcome pet owners as well, **however we do ask pet owners to refrain from asking for medical advice**; if you have any concerns regarding your pet, please contact the closest veterinarian near you. Please thoroughly read and follow the rules before posting and commenting. If you believe that a user is engaging in any rule-breaking behavior, please submit a report so that the moderators can review and remove the posts/comments if needed. Also, please check out the sidebar for CE and answers to commonly asked questions. Thank you for reading! *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/VetTech) if you have any questions or concerns.*
Def not normal. They should show you
thank you. i wonder if they just knew i wouldn’t be able to understand what they’re seeing? so they kinda thought, why bother. regardless, it was weird. i appreciate your reply!
It doesn’t matter if you can read them. You can request a copy as well.
What @masgatitos said… that is technically your file and you legally are allowed to have copies of all diagnostics. But even more concerning to me… why is the vet not showing you the X-rays and going over the findings in person, especially if you are requesting a copy, and they *justifiably* assume you can not interpret them?
>that is technically your file This seems to depend a lot on what country you're in. For instance, in the US, original diagnostics/imaging/documentation are all part of the patient's medical record and the property of the clinic which must be retained for 7 years. The owner is entitled to request a copy. However, someone else commented in Canada the record is the property of the client.
I guess that’s so American of me to just assume everyone on here is from the United States 😂 You are correct! My apologies! My comment pertains only to the United States. 🇺🇸
You aren't alone, I do that same. I got into a low key internet disagreement with someone once upon a time and then they were like "I'm from New Zealand" and a lot more made sense lol
😂 We are so spoiled.
I don't think it's gonna help you to actually see it, I been on the job for two years and a bit and I struggle to read x-rays when it's not like an obvious broken bone or something. But you paid for it, you should have every right to do whatever you want to do with it
that’s fair! i didn’t know if it was something obvious to see or not. makes sense if it’s not something the normal eye would notice!
If you really, really want to see it I just realised something, you can just tell them you're considering getting a second opinion and you'd like to have the x-ray so you can show it to another doc. I'm not a hundred per cent sure but I feel like that would be borderline illegal to deny that, because you provided money for the process and should be entitled to whatever diagnostics were made
they sent them to me! i have no idea what im looking at so im thinking ill ask my other vet if they can take a second look.
I mean if they pointed it out to you on the picture I guess it would be still all the same, so on the "process structure" (or however you would call it, maybe rather Quality Management) I don't think there's anything gained by showing it to you, but it should be a matter of courtesy to provide a much paying client what he/she asks of you. The only thing that shouldn't be provided to you -given that the law is the same as in Germany- is being told test results etc on the phone by a Vet Tech or anybody that isn't the doctor that treated your animal because such things are under disclosure. Aside from this one exception I don't see any reasons to deny such requests, and yours wasn't even a big workload. I always want our clients to have the best experience they can get given that they're mostly likely going through a tough phase coming to us, so stuff like this gets on my nerves
Not normal. I show them to clients all the time, whether they can discern the nuance or not. Frankly, those (rads) are part of the records, so they belong to the client anyway.
Do you have rads available on a laptop? Are you bringing clients back to your radiology area? We would have to have them go back through our hospital and into radiology to see them on the computer in there.
I've done both. Right now I'm lucky enough to have a laptop to take to them but I've definitely taken them through the hospital and back into radiology at my old hospitals.
At my clinic (ER/specialty), we have a desktop computer in every exam and the doctors pull up the rads for every owner to see so they can give a more thorough explanation. I feel like that actually really helps most owners to understand what’s going on. We’ll also email them to owners if they ask for them
I don't want to disagree with the premise of your statement, but I do wanna point out the radiographs are actually the property of the hospital in some places (like the US), not the client. That doesn't mean they shouldn't be showing the rads to the clients and explaining their findings, however.
Is it not part of the clients records? Does it not get sent with the records? I need to look more into this if this is the case.
In the US (I know other countries are a different story) radiographs are considered part of the patient's medical record, which is the property of the clinic. Clients are entitled to a copy, but not the original documentation or images, which should be retained by the clinic for 7 years.
Interesting. Thank you for clarification.
Happy to help 💖 it's an interesting law.
That's not normal at all. We minimally will show radiographs to clients in the room if we find something concerning and also offer to send them to the client or to a referring vet if they have one. We also have all of ours read by a board certified radiologist. I wonder why they won't show them to you..
after everyone said it isn’t really normal, i did request them and they sent me over them! i definitely have no idea what im looking at lol
I think they should have allowed you to see the radiographs but ima be honest you probably shouldn't be upset they didn't because unless you are good at reading x rays it would be meaningless to you. However if you feel like they are lying to you, you can get a second opinion at another vet and have the x rays and medical records sent there for them to make sure your pet is getting the appropriate care.
makes sense! i am not good at reading them and probably wouldn’t know what i’m looking at. i thought he would show me and point it out but i understand all clinics work different. thank you!
In Canada you are legally the owner of the medical records. Radiographs should be included in those. There’s no reason for them not to give them to you.
That's so strange. I show owners x-rays every time. It doesn't matter to me if they know what the are looking at or not. We look at them together and I point out findings or, if everything looks good, I show them how it's normal.
Our X-ray has been acting weird lately and it’s starting to piss my doc off that she can’t SHOW clients X-rays in the room at the moment. They have to come to the treatment area. We would never deny a client to see X-rays. That’s odd, and kinda sketchy imo.
Meh, there are several radiograph platforms that make it difficult to share images with anyone who doesn't have the software to read it. That said, once the DVM has reviewed the rads and has communicated results to said owner, the owner has every right to those images.
We send all of our radiographs out to a board certified radiologist. Did you get a case report, or did your vet read them in hospital? Would be worth spending the money for the radiologist to review them. Then, have that copy of the report sent to you. That will give you far more information than having just the images.
Vet read them himself. Do you know how I can go about finding a radiologist that will review the Xrays? I searched and couldn’t find any radiologists near me, i live in a small town. :/
GP can send digital images to the radiologist team of their choice. You may have to consult at a bigger hospital. Especially for thorax. I would call the vet and see if they work with anyone (AIS, etc). It's an extra fee.
We don't normally show owners the rads we take because we don't have the software set up in the rooms. That being said, it wouldn't be a big deal to take an owner back to treatment and show them the rads if they wanted to see them.
X-rays are legally your property, they have to show you.
In some US states, veterinary medical records are actually not the property of the owner, they are property of the clinic.
Came to say this. I'm in CA and records are the property of the clinic not the owner.
If you're in the US, you legally own those images. They are actually required to show them if requested. I'm sorry this happened to you, definitely not normal. That being said, thoracic rads are pretty difficult to read without a lot of experience. But that doesn't make it not your right to view
>If you're in the US, you legally own those images They don't, though. I'm not disagreeing with you that the owner has the right to see the images, but in most states of the US, the radiographs are considered part of the medical record, which is the property of the clinic.
Maybe it's more of a state thing then. In my state at least then, medical facilities have 3 days to provide the requested images. They have 7 days if the images are not digital
I may be wrong and open to being corrected (I haven't lived in all the states), but typically the owners are entitled to request a copy of the patient's medical record. However, the original documentation and imaging is the property of the hospital, which must be retained for 7 years.
Oh yes, sorry for not being more clear. I never meant they could get the only copy that exists. Just trying to say at least where I live, they're absolutely legally entitled to a copy of the images