USA Today published an article mentioning the ethics of medical records being wrongfully withheld from patient’s family in emergency and fatal situations. There were several hospitals mentioned in the article who faced these accusations that respectively denied they had been involved in any misconduct. The general complaint from patient’s families is that in terminal situations, these families struggle with finding the truth when something goes wrong with their loved ones. Federal law recognizes that these representatives have the authority to see the patient’s records; however, the pressing issue in this situation is not only the timing of providing the records, but also a reoccurrence of missing or false records. The article mentions several specific cases where medical professionals have easy access to these records but when the patient’s families request them to make their own diagnoses or assumptions, the process seems to take substantially longer or certain bits of information are somehow missing.
The Health Information Portability and Accountability Act allows health care providers to withhold records in certain situations; however, in this case the hospital would not provide the reasoning. In a specific case, the records were withheld for too long of a period of time and the “victim” passed her statute of limitations timeframe to file a civil lawsuit.
It seems highly unethical, and oftentimes emotionally corrupt to not provide the patient’s family’s and representatives the proper medical documentation in a timely matter, especially when urgent decisions need to be made. I believe many medical professionals and institutions are concerned with malpractice suits and in some situations I do not think it is far fetched to believe that there is intent involved from delaying the release of information. I think this is also a case of accountability – if there are problems or complications with patient, a family has the right to know the truth and that everything possible was done to save their loved ones.
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3 comments:
Woodhull Hospital near Broadway in Brooklyn, NY is NOTORIOUS for withholding medical records, forms and copies of signed papers from residents and patients. Over and over, we have reports of patients asking for records and they are told they are not allowed to give records. Patients have been forced to sign documents, waivers and consent forms and they have asked for a copy of these and the hospital consistently flatly refuses to give any of these papers to the patients. THis is happening today, over and over at Woodhull. And there is no reason at all to withold a patient's own records when they are asking for them right there. When you send for copies of the records AFTER you are released you are presented with HUNDREDS of dollars in bills if you want to have a copy of the records. THe hospital uses an out of state company to store these records and they refuse to give copies on the spot, when they can give the copies. Woodhull is notorious for withholding information and records from patients. Is this a cover-up? Only the patient can decide. We beg you, yes beg you , to make more blogs and post more experiences about your hospital experiences, especially at Woodhull.
great articles , keep up the good work.
Nice informative posting...
Personal health records contains many different types of information that is directly related to the doctor visits you have had, the diagnosis that you have received, the medications that you have been issued and many other types of information.
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