Retention And Destruction Of Health Records

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

Regulation placed upon the healthcare system only seek to improve safety and security of the patients we care for. The enactment of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPPA) and the enactment of Meaningful Use Act the United States government has set strict regulations on the security of health information and has allotted for stricter penalties for non-compliance. The advancement of electronic health record (EHR) systems has brought greater fluidity and compliance with healthcare but has also brought greater security risk of protected information. In order to ensure compliance with government standards organizations must adapt

Healthcare organizations have been tasked to explicitly define organizational requirements for what their facility maintains as a legal health record and maintains as a designated record set. The requirement that healthcare facilities maintain a designated record set, in addition to a legal health record, is a HIPAA privacy rule (AHIMA, 2011). While all healthcare organizations will uniquely define both record sets, in order to be in compliance with HIPAA their definitions must contain common principles (AHIMA, 2011).

The information contained in the medical records is confidential and can only be released to authorized individuals in accordance with state and federal regulations. At Consulate Health Care only authorized persons may have access to clinical records in the permanent record file. Specifically authorized personnel are those involved in resident care, the Executive Director, consultants employed by the Facility, appropriate representatives of survey agencies, and others engaged in research projects who have been approved by the Executive Director. As a health care provider, Beneva Lakes’ primary focus of Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, HIPAA, is: Combating against fraud and abuse; Ensuring confidentiality and security of individuals’ information/data; and Mandating uniform standards for electronic data transmissions of patient health information. Sharing Protected Health Information, PHI, is allowed for the purposes of treatment, billing, health care operations, determining eligibility and with patient authorization. Any sharing of PHI not required or allowed by federal of state statute is improper and it must be properly maintained for at least ten years. It is Consulate Health Care’s policy that prior to releasing PHI for promotional purposes, the provider must receive a written authorization that includes the dates it is valid and the ability of the patient to revoke the authorization.

3 Making sure the all documents containing pt info be secured away in a locked closet or cabinet. Disposal of documents properly by shredding the documents.

What provisions apply? To maintain all health records confidential. the HIPPA law must cover all privacy polices, name, contact, files, or even contacting up to measures at the office. Each patients medical documents must be protected by entity's of the privacy practices. This law has passed years ago since 1996. Public law 104-191 includes a personal representative's that respect and secure each patient health files/documents.

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 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

The HIPPA privacy rule act protects individual’s medical records, and other personal health information. A patient’s privacy records can pertain to; identity, health care, medical records, and demographic profile. HIPPA rules requires, safeguarding a patients privacy of personal health information, it also sets limits on what can be used or disclosed with others without a patients authorization.

HIPPA- Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, this act establishes national standards to protect Individual medical records and health information. The HIPAA regulations apply to the following entities: health care providers who transmit any health information electronically, health plans (including Medicare and Medicaid programs), and health care clearinghouses. These security standards are implemented to protect Personal Health Information (PHI) that is either stored or transmitted electronically. Use of Internet and electronic devices to store this PHI creates new vulnerabilities; all such risks are to be eliminated stands as a major objective of HIPPA security compliances

The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) of 1996 is a US law aimed to advance the portability and continuity of health insurance coverage in both the group and individual markets, and to combat waste, fraud, and abuse in health insurance and health care delivery as well as other purposes26. The Act defines security standards for healthcare information, and it takes into account a number of factors including the technical capabilities of record systems used to maintain health information, the cost of security measures, the need for training personnel, the value of audit trails in computerized record systems, and the needs and capabilities of small healthcare providers. A person who maintains or transmits health information

In the modern world technology is everywhere and it affects everyone’s daily life. People are constantly attached to cell phones, laptops, and other electronics, which all have affected how people live their lives. Technology is also a large part of the healthcare system today. There are many electronics and technologies that are used in health care, such as electronic health record, medication bar code scanning, electronic documentation, telenursing, and there are many more forms of technology that impact nursing. One technology that stands out is the electronic health record. The electronic health record, also referred to as EHR, is an electronic version of a patient’s chart, and it contains is a list of the patient’s current medications, allergies, laboratory results, diagnoses, immunization dates, images, treatments, and medical history (“Learn EHR Basics,” 2014). The purpose of the electronic health record is to have a patient’s health care record available to health care providers nationwide, but the patient can decide who has access to their record (Edwards, Chiweda, Oyinka, McKay, & Wiles, 2011). The electronic health record is a very important technology in health care and it impacts nurses, nursing care, and has a significant impact on patient outcomes.

The article listed above, explains how retention and disposition relate to the important responsibility of information governance, which is carried out by health care professionals. Retention is when medical records are kept for a specified period in case a situation arises that they are needed. The time period in which records are maintained depends on many different factors, such as facility rules, state/federal rules, and the potential need of a specific document. The retention of documents needs to be managed and maintained because you don’t want to store material you don’t need any more or throw material that is needed. Disposition is what happens to records after they meet their retention period. Disposition can include transfer

Additional Services Excel Medical Waste Disposal can also assist your company with document shredding and document storage. Strict HIPAA regulations are meant to assure that individual's health information is protected, necessitating the secure destruction of documents and other media. Excel Medical Waste Disposal can provide this service onsite. They also offer secure and affordable document storage for medical records, legal documents, and paper documents of any