Patent ID: 8285565

Claim:
A computer-based system for accessing patient medical information in a network comprising: a plurality of healthcare provider computing devices storing detailed medical records about a plurality of patients, a first of said plurality of healthcare provider computing devices configured and arranged to generate and upload a first set of medical record pointers to a repository computing device, a second of said plurality of healthcare provider computing devices configured and arranged to generate and upload a second set of medical record pointers to said repository computing device, said medical record pointers including summary information sufficient to locate detailed medical records about one or more patients, without including the entire substantive content of said detailed medical records themselves; a repository database residing on said repository computing device, said repository database storing medical records of a plurality of patients generated at least in part from said first and second set of medical record pointers, each medical record, being associated with a healthcare provider, further includes a healthcare provider identification code, a date of service, a diagnostic or billing code, and an availability code listing an ability to access the medical record with the respect to the healthcare provider; a search processor, including at least one computer hardware component, for initiating, in response to a first command, a search of said repository database to locate at least one medical record associated with a particular patient; and an interface processor, including at least one computer hardware component, for generating in response to a second command, a request to access said stored medical record of the particular patient, which said response to said second command includes at least one of the following: a link to the actual medical record being stored on said repository database, or direct contact information associated with the healthcare provider; wherein at least one of said plurality of stored medical records has an availability code indicating that the stored medical record is available in direct form online, at least another of said plurality of stored medical records has an availability code indicating that a browser-based display of the stored medical record is available in a standard format, and at least still another of said plurality of stored medical records has an availability code indicating that a request form must be submitted to the associated healthcare provider so as to request that a faxed or printed copy of the stored medical record be sent.