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Re: medical examiner records



Aren't we also still continually struggling with whether or not the deceased
have a legal right to privacy? Does anyone know if the wording of the new
laws leaves this an ambiguous point or will the wording dictate permanent
restriction?

Janette Gomes
Assistant Regional Archivist
Puget Sound Regional Archives
3000 Landerholm Circle SE, MS-N100
Bellevue, WA  98007-6484
jgomes@bcc.ctc.edu
(425) 564-3946

-----Original Message-----
From: Stephanie Adams [mailto:cora@CLEMSON.EDU]
Sent: Thursday, August 01, 2002 11:06 AM
To: ARCHIVES@LISTSERV.MUOHIO.EDU
Subject: Fwd: Re: Re: medical examiner records


A friend of mine has been doing some work involving HIPAA regulations and
offers the following suggestions.

Stephanie Adams
Processing Archivist
Clemson University

>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

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