Getting Medical Test Results

When we moved two years ago we threw out a lot of papers. Unfortunately, one of them was a colonoscopy test result. I usually keep copies of the latest medical test results. A lot of them are on line on patient portals, but we also switched to new doctors who don’t have our fifteen year history. I have never seen my new doctor because of Covid, but we did meet virtually last year and I had annual blood drawn. So this year will be the first time for an annual physical and I want to bring along the latest copies FYI. It’s taken three months to finally make contact with the GI center in Chevy Chase. I left about six emails requesting medical records without a response. I called several times and no one picked up the phone. When I finally talked to someone, no one picked up the phone when I was transferred to medical records. Finally last week I talked to someone - and they said I needed to open a patient portal - just to get one report!? So I did. When I looked for my document, they said I had to call the doctor’s office because he was no longer with that clinic. What was the point of setting up a portal? So I asked for his phone number. Before long someone called me from his office and asked when I wanted to schedule an appointment for a procedure. I said I wasn’t interested in scheduling a procedure - I just wanted a medical record. Finally, after fooling around with this, she uploaded the document to the portal where I could finally access it and print it. I really just wanted to know when I had the last test because I’m not looking forward to scheduling another one until it’s absolutely necessary. What a hassle. Since both my husband and I had health cate careers we do get a bit flabbergasted over things like this. I suppose I could have not bothered, but I like to be prepared.