Should Healthcare Organizations Use Electronic Health Records?
What healthcare organizations define as a “legal” health record is becoming very important. The primary role of a health record is to keep a record of tests, treatments, and medications of a patient. A legal health record serves to identify what information constitutes the official business record of an organization for evidentiary purposes. (AHIMA, 2011)
There are many issues that should be considered by a healthcare organization when defining the legal health record. One of the issues is how to store the health record. It used to be a legal health records were paper, but now electronic health records becoming more and more common. When electronic records are used, how to access and what they contain must also be considered. At Group Health Cooperative, headquartered in Seattle, Washington, patients have the ability to send emails directly to their physicians via the corporate website. Those …show more content…
HIPPA is more generic in its laws while the Montana Code is quite specific. One difference is that HIPPA law does not contain a clause for the release of information for statistical use, while Montana code does. Montana Code 50-16-603 (2) states “Health care information in the possession of the department, a local board, a local health officer, or the entity 's authorized representatives may not be released except: for the statistical purposes, if no identification of individual can be made from the information released. The HIPPA laws also do not contain a specific clause for signed consent for release as the Montana Code does. I will not repeat the clause as it can be found above. One thing that both the Montana Code and the HIPPA laws have in common is a provision for the patient to obtain a copy of their own medical record. While the HIPPA code does not give a price for making a copy, Montana Code allows a cost of $0.50 per page and an administration fee of no more than $15. (Code,
There are many issues that should be considered by a healthcare organization when defining the legal health record. One of the issues is how to store the health record. It used to be a legal health records were paper, but now electronic health records becoming more and more common. When electronic records are used, how to access and what they contain must also be considered. At Group Health Cooperative, headquartered in Seattle, Washington, patients have the ability to send emails directly to their physicians via the corporate website. Those …show more content…
HIPPA is more generic in its laws while the Montana Code is quite specific. One difference is that HIPPA law does not contain a clause for the release of information for statistical use, while Montana code does. Montana Code 50-16-603 (2) states “Health care information in the possession of the department, a local board, a local health officer, or the entity 's authorized representatives may not be released except: for the statistical purposes, if no identification of individual can be made from the information released. The HIPPA laws also do not contain a specific clause for signed consent for release as the Montana Code does. I will not repeat the clause as it can be found above. One thing that both the Montana Code and the HIPPA laws have in common is a provision for the patient to obtain a copy of their own medical record. While the HIPPA code does not give a price for making a copy, Montana Code allows a cost of $0.50 per page and an administration fee of no more than $15. (Code,