Retention Case Study

The health record is a collection of information about a patient’s past and present health. The primary purpose of the health record is to document the health history of the patient. It helps in patient care management and patient care support process. Moreover, record’s primary purpose is to get information for billing and reimbursement. The secondary purpose of the health record is to provide a legal record of care given and act as a source of data to support clinical audit, research, resource allocation, performance monitoring, epidemiology and service planning. Sometimes health information will be de-identified before it is used for these secondary

An outside business can dispose of protected health information by purging or destroying electronic media. This is covered in 45 CFR 164.308(b), 164.314(a), 164.502(e), and 164.504(e). HHS HIPAA Security Series 3: Security Standards – Physical Safeguards is a good source for more information. The Medical Records Director should maintain documentation with all

There should not be any information held which is not relevant to the resident or their care. A resident's record should never be kept longer than necessary.

In a general medical record a patient is entitled to a copy of his or her record, the only thing they would have to do

Once the medical records have been converted to electronic medical records. There are two options, one is to shred the original documents. The other option is to store them in a storage where they will be locked away. They will always be available to be viewed whenever need be. I personally would keep the files in a locked storage for about a year or two to see if it would make life easier before shredding the documents.

Any information utilized in, “documenting healthcare or health status,” of a patient must be included in the designated record set (AHIMA, 2011). This includes patient documentation collected on any medium, such as WAVE files or x-ray images (AHIMA, 2011). Consequently, due to the incorporation of clinical, administrative, and other protected private health information, the designated record set is extremely different from the legal health record (AHIMA,

9. What measures in terms of physical storage are taken to ensure the privacy of the medical record?

An electronic health record (EHR) defines as the permissible patient record created in hospitals that serve as the data source for all health records. It is an electronic version of a paper chart that includes the patient’s medical history, maintained by the provider over time, and may include all of the key administrative clinical data relevant to that persons care. Information that is readily available includes information such as demographics, progress notes, allergies, medications, vital signs, past medical history, immunizations, laboratory data, & radiology reports. The intent of an EHR can be understood as a complete record of patient

According to Iron Mountain (2015), failing to dispose of patient medical records securely is a HIPAA violation of unwilling negligence, which is another legal issue in scheduling patient appointments. When a patient declines an appointment or does not respond to requests to call the office to schedule the appointment, the medical records must be securely disposed of, or shredded. For example, when a referring PCP or specialist office calls and schedules an appointment, on behalf of the patient, during the initial phone call, the patient may not be aware of the referral. Furthermore, the patient may not be available on the date and time selected by the referring office. Consequently, when the patient contacts scheduling to inquire about

The first thing you must know is HIPAA LAWS. It is imperative that medical records remain confidential

The HIPAA Privacy Rule does not affirm the necessary time for medical records to be retained. The rule refers to state and federal laws on conserving time for records to be kept. On the other hand, HIPAA rules do have requirement for methods of disposing medical records. The HIPAA Security Rule requires healthcare organizations and providers to rigidly execute policies and procedures involving the disposal of paper records and EHR. According to U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, shredding, mincing, burning, and grinding methods should be used for paper records so that PHI is unreadable and illegible for recreating. For digital formats of PHI, clearing, purging, and destroying are needed (U.S. Department of Health & Human Services, 2009). Willow Bend Hospital intensely follows these guidelines. Medical information in paper formats will be shredded after reaching the time limit for storing. Before reusing or disposing of hard disk drives or compact disks, the information technology department will reformat the entire drives and disks following the hospital policy number 20.202HIT. If the drives and disks are damaged and the overwriting processes cannot be carried on, the drives and disks will be detached from computers and physically destroyed by pulping or pulverizing before

It has always been the job of health care providers to maintain doctor-patient confidentiality. Not only is it a legal obligation it is also an ethical obligation to many doctors, nurses, physician’s assistants and many other medical staff. Until recently medical records were primarily recorded on paper and stored in cabinets and locked in what was believed as a secure room. The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act also known as HIPAA, was passed on August 21, 1996. Although the law was passed in 1996 it did not become effective until April 14, 2003. This was due to the fact that “Given that Congress did not act to produce these within the timeframe specified by the law the secretary at the Department of Health and Human

responsibilities and duties in maintaining the records to meet needs of health care stakeholders. Abuse

More people are also able to break into records and steal information, for example hackers. There are more known errors to occur. If your health care provider does not enter the correct information, the information remains in the health record until it is corrected.

Meaningful use refers to the adoption of healthcare management technology referred to as the electronic-health record whose primary function is enhancing the quality, efficiency, safety, as well as reduction in health related disparities. In addition, meaningful use seeks to improve the level of care coordination, public health management and population. Undoubtedly, this aspiration encompasses the increased engagement of the patients as well their families while maintaining the safety and confidentiality of the medical information of the patient. From this backdrop, this paper shall discuss the legal, ethical and financial issues that may flow from the legislation (adoption) of meaningful use.