"A Not Quite Integrated EMR"

Based on a privately paid for MRI scan and debilitating pain I was referred to a multi-disciplinary spine clinic in a major city in Alberta.  As is common, it took 6 months to see the team. Also, I needed to pay an additional fee to book the appointment.  They -- the staff, physio and family doc -- were lovely and functioned as a well oiled machine, having seen a couple of ruptured discs in their days.  I called back to check on why the report generated by my visit was unavailable in MyChart.  MyChart is the Alberta-wide online platform that aggregates treatment and diagnosis notes and test results from hospital- and community-based providers and labs.   

I was advised that it wasn't the spine clinic's policy to put copies of the consultation letter up on MyChart.  Which is to say, the very pleasant clinic staffer who answered the phone said the report was unavailable, for seemingly legal reasons. 

But it seems weird. Given that my gastroenterologist puts up reports, and that my (regular, not spine) family doctor puts up reports, and that the point of the much vaunted MyChart system is to put information in patients' hands, the story seems weird.  Given that the spine family doc had, during my time in his consulting room while he flipped through my MRI, highlighted how handy it was to have everything (all the images, and notes) in MyChart, things began to seem weirder.   

The suggested work around was to call my (regular) family doctor and ask for the consultation report, or, alternatively, call the spine clinic's medical records department and wait 6 weeks for a formal request to be honoured -- I began to think this was very weird indeed.  Given that staff at my (regular) family doctor's office will often ask the doctor’s permission to release the report to me. I began to think that the weirdness really was pilling up.   What's in this report?  Do they make fun of a bald spot of mine?  Does it say I have moments to live, or reveal a state secret?  Why isn't this report, as reports from my gastroenterologist are, considered to be mine?  It seems like some providers just want to bill me to request the record. Why are we paying for an integrated EMR platform that (some providers) can dis-intergrate whenever? Someone - me! - actually has to have the problem that's reported in the file in the first place.  Maybe I only have a right to see it under certain circumstances, but this hasn’t been made clear to me.  This won't promote efficiency or the use of publicly paid for IT system components. It seems...weird.