X-Time: <200208011753.g71HrCa29834>
From: "John Hunter" <johna.hunter@mindspring.com>
To: "Stephanie Adams" <cora@CLEMSON.EDU>
Subject: Re: Re: medical examiner records
Date: Thu, 1 Aug 2002 13:52:52 -0400
X-Mailer: Microsoft Outlook Express 6.00.2600.0000
Hi there,
This topic gets especially sticky since the Bush administration's Department
of Health & Human Services has suggested changes to the rules governing
privacy of individually identifiable health information (Fed. Reg., Vol. 67,
No. 59, March 27, 2002; 45 CFR Parts 160 and 164). The proposed changes have
not yet been approved, but the common opinion is that they will be approved
this year. This makes it all the more important to seek qualified legal
advice before doing anything with patient records. What you learned when the
privacy final rule was accepted is very likely to change and you'll need
expert legal help to interpret the law correctly.
Lesley Brunet has the right idea. While I haven't read any specific advice
about death records, what I have read urges extreme caution when dealing
with the privacy of all patient records. In areas where the law is vague,
the advice I've seen is to put the strictest interpretation on the law and
to seek legal advice. This agrees completely with L.B. The person wanting to
use these records will at the very least need signed releases from the
families of all of the patients. This assumes that the person has a legal
right to look at their records in the first place. Records can be used under
some circumstances for research and analysis. This typically involves
de-identifying the record by removing any information that ties a record to
an individual. Again, I'd seek legal advice regarding: the person's right to
actually see the record, which releases must be signed to use the records,
what sorts of uses of the records would be permitted and what sort of
de-identification of each patient's personal health information would be
needed to make using these records acceptable.
John Hunter
Chief Consultant
Hunter PD&T, Inc.
Software Processes, Documentation, & Testing
email: jah@hunterpdt.com
web: www.hunterpdt.com
phone: 864-653-7677