Your Medical Records in Malta

I'm starting to see why the U.S. spends so much more on health care than any other nation. Take medical records, for example. The other day I went to my doctor in Malta because I thought I might have a kidney infection. He does not keep my records; I do. No general practitioners keep their patients' records or tests.

You have a booklet which you bring each time to the doctor. He/she writes in it-diagnosis, tests, treatment, etc. Whenever the doctor gets back test results, he hands them to you after discussing them with you. And you're expected to keep them and bring them with you the next time you have an appointment.

As you can see, this does put a lot of responsibility on the patient. And, as you can also see, this can lead to problems when patients forget their booklets. Some patients end up with several booklets; others forget to bring in their previous test results or lists of medications.

However, this is also why a visit to the GP here in Malta only costs me 8 Euros ($11.90); full blood screening 20 Euros ($28.24) and a test of a bladder/kidney infection 1.5 Euros ($2.14).

When I go a general practitioner in the U.S., it costs me about $100 for a visit; $120 for blood tests and about $50 for the lab work to test for a urinary tract infection. Why?

I think one reason is how medical records are handled in the U.S. First, each patient has a whole fancy record kept in a file cabinet in the office. There have to be enough file cabinets to hold all the files. There has to be enough office space to hold enough file cabinets. Then you need trained medical records personnel to go through all the files and records. Think of how much that costs.

The moral of this story: If you like the relatively low cost of the medical care in Malta or the rest of Europe, don't complain about having to keep and bring in your own medical record. You don't get what you don't pay for-and that can be good.

Ilene Springer lives in Malta and is author of An-American-in-Malta.com.