How Is a Medical Case Chronology Helpful for Trial Attorneys?

Medical case chronology preparation is an important part of the medical record review process. This chronology is a report that provides a factual, succinct, and informative summary regarding a client’s medical treatment. It enables the attorney to understand what actually happened to the client, the injury/illness sustained and its impact, the medical care provided, and how the injury or illness relate to an accident/incident. As one of the most significant medical review solutions, this case chronology can also be used by an insurance company to help with the settlement of a health insurance claim before a lawsuit is filed. In case a settlement cannot be reached before a lawsuit is filed, the chronology will find use in litigation for trial preparation or deposition.

It is best to have the medical case chronology prepared by a professional team of medical reviewers.

Chronological Presentation of Important Medical Information

• The exact medical condition of the patient
• All treatments provided and details of providers and facilities
• Past medical events that have impacted or may impact the patient’s present condition
• Medical concerns that the patient may face in the future

Components of a Medical Case Chronology

• The date of injury and its cause
• Emergency treatment provided
• Symptoms and diagnosis
• Various treatments provided
• Treatment dates, along with names of providers
• Disability/impairment if any
• Recovery time
• Treatments that may be necessary in the future
• Prior treatments or surgeries the patient underwent, if any
• Family medical history

It is evident how a well-prepared medical case chronology with the above components is useful for trial attorneys to obtain an accurate and speedy understanding of the case.

Medical Records Analysis for Preparing a Legal Case Chronology

To prepare a legal case chronology, the first step is a comprehensive review of the relevant medical records. Here is a break-up of the review process.

• Medical record sorting and categorization
• Analysis of the records to understand the various medical components involved
• Accurate understanding of each medical record, relevant dates, diagnoses, procedures, treatments and other important elements
• Identifying missing records, if any
• Creating a medical record chronology and summary that can be easily understood by non-medical persons also, and highlighting the significant elements in the medical chart
• Adding post-its or highlighted notes, if necessary
• Deletion of duplicate records; a log is created for the deleted records
• The final report is provided in PDF or MS Word format
• In the PDF format, you have the options for hyperlinking to the respective source pages; bookmarking to index by categories/keywords defined by the user; explanation of medical terms; highlighting the client’s statements regarding the accident or event

Features of a Good Chronology for Trial Attorneys

For a chronology to be useful for trial attorneys, it must be distinguished by certain unique features. The types of chronologies can be:

• A good synopsis of the case: This comprises a clear summary that traces the medical events in a sequential manner. It includes a complete list of conditions, procedures undergone, recent visits, medications, treatments received, and lab results.
• A succinct analysis of the impairments: Medical conditions could have an impact on various parts of the body, sometimes serious and sometimes less severe. The accurate listing of impairments would divide the patient’s medical history on the basis of organ system, organized from the least severe to the most severely impacted or vice versa.
• An abstract of the medical chart: This includes a timeline of treatments provided presented in a manner that attorneys can better comprehend and thereby better understand their client’s medical history. The different sections of this abstract would include the relevant date, type of encounter, providers, and a summary of the visit, the reason why care was needed, the procedures undergone, physician’s evaluation and the plan of care.
• Hyperlinked source records: Each health condition, medication, date and entry is linked to the respective page of the source medical records. The advantage is that attorneys need not search through thousands of medical records to quickly and easily find the information they need.
• Additional documents: These included in a chronology enable attorneys to peruse all diagnostic and therapeutic procedures (including nursing care, surgeries, anesthesia), history of medications (drugs, antibiotics, anticoagulants etc. administered to the patient, arranged in alphabetical order and organized by the medication type and the prescription date), and lab results. They provide useful data to create an overall picture of the patient’s health history. You can find a list of scans, x-rays, MRIs and so on under diagnostic procedures (alphabetized and organized by date) that can be easily reviewed and compared for different periods of time.

Now that we have seen the components and use of a medical chronology, here’s a look at the benefits of outsourcing medical record chronology preparation to a medical review company.

Medical Case Chronology Outsourcing Benefits

• Medical record retrieval becomes easier
• Valuable savings in terms of time and money
• Trial attorneys can focus on other important case-related matters such as proving causation, liability, and damages
• The medical chronology/medical summary helps understand all medical aspects completely
• The chronology can be customized to meet individual attorney requirements
• Benefit from the service of an expert medical review team comprising experienced medical record reviewers, physicians, nurses and coding professionals.

A medical chronology report is thus a valuable tool for trial attorneys to ensure a successful settlement or trial. It provides the complete medical details pertaining to a case and ensures that those details are accurate. When prepared by a professional medical review company, the chronology enables the attorney to correctly evaluate the extent of injuries, damages, pain and suffering. A well-prepared chronology report can provide an edge to the attorney over his/her opponent.