21st Century Cures Act - Changes to release of sensitive lab results

In compliance with the federal 21st Century Cures Act on January 14, 2025, CCHMC will remove a 7-day hold on results for a limited number of sensitive labs. Results of these tests will become immediately visible to MyChart patients/users. This change will affect lab and imaging results in the following categories: molecular and genomic pathology results, cytogenetics lab results, tumor markers, genetics labs, and fetal imaging results. Within MyChart, we will continue to include an advisory which states, “IMPORTANT: Most test results are released in real time as they are available to medical staff. There is a chance that you may see results before the physicians have time to review them with you.”

This change affects results that are complex and nuanced, and which must be interpreted within individual patient context. Historically, the 7-day hold allowed providers to review the results, and to collaborate with colleagues and generate a more robust assessment and plan prior to releasing the results to the family. After this change, families may gain access to these results prior to their care teams being prepared to discuss the results with them. The ordering care teams will try to mitigate the stress associated with these events through expectant counseling. Still, it is foreseeable that families may contact their primary care providers for insights or assistance during the time between the results returning and their follow-up care meeting.

Sensitive health labs for pregnancy, sexually transmitted infection testing, and drug screening will continue to be released to MyChart only manually (patients and proxies have the same view of results once they are released).  They will also be held back from first-pass Health Information Management requests. Please send questions or concerns to Lindsey Barrick (lindsey.barrick@cchmc.org) or Andy Spooner (Andrew.Spooner@cchmc.org).