Does your doctor/midwife allow recording of u/s?

PitaBread · April 2011

Just curious, we were told that it's against the law to record them here in CA, which sounds absurd. I'm just wondering if others were able to do it. My friend in Jersey recorded her last one and it is so much better than a still photo!

iggy.d · April 2011

I'm not sure if we're allowed to record it ourselves, but they offer to put it on a DVD or flash drive if we bring one in. I wonder why it could be against the law?

sewpinkgal · April 2011

At our NT scan, they made us a DVD copy of the entire u/s. It is amazing!

I'm don't think they would have let us bring in a video camera or something though.

ETA: I'm in southern CA, too.

PitaBread · April 2011

They said they can't even do DVDs! Two doctors told us that the machines record internally for them to review if they need to, but they are not allowed to give that out to patients! No one could give us a reason as to why. It's not like we wanted to bring a huge camera to record, DH just wanted a short clip on his iPhone and was told no.

sewpinkgal · April 2011

PitaBread:
They said they can't even do DVDs! Two doctors told us that the machines record internally for them to review if they need to, but they are not allowed to give that out to patients! No one could give us a reason as to why. It's not like we wanted to bring a huge camera to record, DH just wanted a short clip on his iPhone and was told no.

Sounds like it might be an internal policy then. Bummer.

Jessie0706 · April 2011

It's probably for liability reasons, in case something is told to you wrong, something goes wrong, etc. People are too suing-happy in this time of age... That sucks you can't, though!

pennysuedog · April 2011

No video taping for us either they never said why.

PitaBread · April 2011

This was at my crappy ob's office, who I only saw to get an NT scan. We switched to a midwife and have an appt next week. Totally different facility, so I will see what they have to say since clearly it's not a state law like we were told!

babymamaT77 · April 2011

I am in southern cali as well and at mmy last ob appointment I asked if I could record it for my husband who is deployed and she let me record it on my little flip camera.... never heard of that being illegal. Maybe just in the particular office you were at?

unamilagra · April 2011

We aren't in CA, but my DH recorded the whole thing on his camera and the tech didn't bat an eye.

The only thing I can think of is like PP said, they don't want you to have video evidence in case they said/did something wrong that you could later sue them for.

love_melongtime · April 2011

My midwife records it for us! They gave us a DVD, put our U/S on it, and we take it with us to every apt and have a recording of every u/s.

sewpinkgal · April 2011

PitaBread:
This was at my crappy ob's office, who I only saw to get an NT scan. We switched to a midwife and have an appt next week. Totally different facility, so I will see what they have to say since clearly it's not a state law like we were told!

That OB's office just sounds more and more awesome.

/sarcasm

If I sent you a PM, would you be willing to share the name? I'd just love to have it on my "never go there or let a friend go there" list.

mattandbekah · April 2011

With Jack, we were allowed to bring a DVD or Flash drive to put it on, but it wasnt an actual recording of the U/S, it was the still pictures that were taken in a series on the disk.

PitaBread · April 2011

sewpinkgal:
PitaBread:
This was at my crappy ob's office, who I only saw to get an NT scan. We switched to a midwife and have an appt next week. Totally different facility, so I will see what they have to say since clearly it's not a state law like we were told!
That OB's office just sounds more and more awesome.
/sarcasm
If I sent you a PM, would you be willing to share the name? I'd just love to have it on my "never go there or let a friend go there" list.

Absolutely! I'll PM you the name of the practice.

Mrs. Mo · April 2011

Ours has signs up saying that cameras & video recorders are not allowed. I think it has to do with malpractice issues (like how some delivery rooms don't allow them either)

IEtoLA · April 2011

When I worked in Radiology, they used to have the equipment to save it onto DVD, but only certain machines had it so they just said no to everyone. It is also a malpractice issue. While it is your body/baby they are scanning, they are medical records.

PitaBread · April 2011

lisajay09:
Mrs. Mo:

Ours has signs up saying that cameras & video recorders are not allowed. I think it has to do with malpractice issues (like how some delivery rooms don't allow them either)
We can't record u/s either and they do not offer a DVD of anything...No recording during Labor and Delivery, either.

Wow, that kind of sucks. Not that I would want to record the birth, but we are using a free-standing birth center for delivery and can record the birth, hire a birth photographer, pretty much do whatever we want.

sewpinkgal · April 2011

IEtoLA:
When I worked in Radiology, they used to have the equipment to save it onto DVD, but only certain machines had it so they just said no to everyone. It is also a malpractice issue. While it is your body/baby they are scanning, they are medical records.

True, but at any time I can go and request my medical records from my doctor. In fact, the derm I used to work for highly suggested that I always keep a copy of my medical records in my posession just in case I ever needed them.

sewpinkgal · April 2011

PitaBread:

Absolutely! I'll PM you the name of the practice.

Thanks! I got it.

IEtoLA · April 2011

sewpinkgal:

IEtoLA:
When I worked in Radiology, they used to have the equipment to save it onto DVD, but only certain machines had it so they just said no to everyone. It is also a malpractice issue. While it is your body/baby they are scanning, they are medical records.

True, but at any time I can go and request my medical records from my doctor. In fact, the derm I used to work for highly suggested that I always keep a copy of my medical records in my posession just in case I ever needed them.

I know you can request them. I actually thinks it's a load of crap that you have to request records that are about you. I'm just saying that is why they do it.

ProcrastinatingBride · April 2011

sewpinkgal:
IEtoLA:
When I worked in Radiology, they used to have the equipment to save it onto DVD, but only certain machines had it so they just said no to everyone. It is also a malpractice issue. While it is your body/baby they are scanning, they are medical records.

True, but at any time I can go and request my medical records from my doctor. In fact, the derm I used to work for highly suggested that I always keep a copy of my medical records in my posession just in case I ever needed them.

IMO the difference is that medical records are much more objective than a video.

There may not be anything that goes wrong during the NT scan, and the NT scan may show a healthy baby, but if the baby turns out not to be healthy, a lawyer may try to argue that the deformity/illness could have been identified during the NT scan. Then you get into the quality of the video (which they have no control over if you're the one taking it on your cell phone), what was visible or not at the time of the scan, etc. It just takes one source of accusations by a patient out of the equation.

Medical records are written by the medical professionals themselves. They aren't done using your pen or paper or in any other way on your terms. IMO that's what makes them different from a liability standpoint than a video you take during an u/s.

And yes, I have been a litigation attorney in the field of medical malpractice. Wink

ETA: You can probably request and receive whatever sort of recording the office routinely does of its NT scans, but again, that's within their control. Your recording of it wouldn't be.

And one more thing: none of what I said makes it OK for a doctor's office to lie to a patient about the LEGALITY under state law of recording the scan. That's just bullshiit.

sewpinkgal · April 2011

ProcrastinatingBride:

Medical records are written by the medical professionals themselves. They aren't done using your pen or paper or in any other way on your terms. IMO that's what makes them different from a liability standpoint than a video you take during an u/s.

Oh, I totally agree with you. I was just pointing out that claiming the u/s recorded by the office itself is a medical record is no reason not to allow the patient to have it, you know?

Btw, my H is an attorney, too, so I get the legal arguments and completely understand why they are leary of folks making their own recordings in the office, for exactly the reasons you state.

ProcrastinatingBride · April 2011

sewpinkgal:
ProcrastinatingBride:

Medical records are written by the medical professionals themselves. They aren't done using your pen or paper or in any other way on your terms. IMO that's what makes them different from a liability standpoint than a video you take during an u/s.

Oh, I totally agree with you. I was just pointing out that claiming the u/s recorded by the office itself is a medical record is no reason not to allow the patient to have it, you know?

Btw, my H is an attorney, too, so I get the legal arguments and completely understand why they are leary of folks making their own recordings in the office, for exactly the reasons you state.

Well, that's certainly true! Yes

I just know I wouldn't want to have to make arguments about the details of a grainy cellphone video shot by a non-professional cameraman with a very vested interest in the outcome.

Kitty Holland · April 2011

Seems pretty silly to me. And p.s. you have a right to your own medical records so that argument doesn't fly.

Kitty Holland · April 2011

sewpinkgal:
ProcrastinatingBride:

Medical records are written by the medical professionals themselves. They aren't done using your pen or paper or in any other way on your terms. IMO that's what makes them different from a liability standpoint than a video you take during an u/s.
Oh, I totally agree with you. I was just pointing out that claiming the u/s recorded by the office itself is a medical record is no reason not to allow the patient to have it, you know?
Btw, my H is an attorney, too, so I get the legal arguments and completely understand why they are leary of folks making their own recordings in the office, for exactly the reasons you state.

Medical records include results of diagnostic tests, x-rays, etc. so again, this argument doesn't fly. Yea, if they missed something in the NT scan I would want proof of that. Of course I would. Who wouldn't?

And yes, I'm an attorney.

ProcrastinatingBride · April 2011

Kitty Holland:
sewpinkgal:
ProcrastinatingBride:

Medical records are written by the medical professionals themselves. They aren't done using your pen or paper or in any other way on your terms. IMO that's what makes them different from a liability standpoint than a video you take during an u/s.
Oh, I totally agree with you. I was just pointing out that claiming the u/s recorded by the office itself is a medical record is no reason not to allow the patient to have it, you know?
Btw, my H is an attorney, too, so I get the legal arguments and completely understand why they are leary of folks making their own recordings in the office, for exactly the reasons you state.

Medical records include results of diagnostic tests, x-rays, etc. so again, this argument doesn't fly. Yea, if they missed something in the NT scan I would want proof of that. Of course I would. Who wouldn't?
And yes, I'm an attorney.

No one is saying the doc would be within his rights to deny you a copy of whatever record they routinely make. What I am saying is that the doc is within his rights to deny you the opportunity to MAKE YOUR OWN RECORDING of same.

And just having such a recording - and an attorney to argue that the doc missed something - does not mean that the doc, in fact, missed anything. That's the whole point of what I was saying. You as the attorney can argue whatever you want - and the grainier and lower-quality the video, the more convincing you can be. It doesn't mean that you're telling the truth though.

btsrc5 · April 2011

I just called to ask. They will not allow us to record it but they will give us pictures printed out or emailed

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