In a complex health services environment with many different health care practitioners, individual practitioners and directors at health care facilities may be confused on how long to retain -- and whether to dispose of -- medical records. Does having digital records require records to be kept indefinitely, or does it simply allow it?
Differing and even conflicting sources of requirements exist for the retention and disposition of medical records, which may vary based upon the specific health care practitioner. With the majority of medical records moving to an electronic format, special rules now exist with regard to the confidentiality, security, retention, and disposition of electronic medical records.
Learn to identify and apply these differing and conflicting rules with respect to the specific health care practitioner, the specific health care facility practice, and the emerging rules and regulations for electronic medical records confidentiality, security, and disposition.
Learning Objectives:
- To know sources of legal requirements for medical records retention
- To identify sources of contractual requirements for medical records retention
- To state what information is mandated to be in a specific health care practitioner's medical record
- To understand facility rules as applied to the individual health care practitioner
- To update electronic records confidentiality, retention, and disposition
- To focus on professional wills and business succession plans for the health care practitioner to govern the retention of medical records
- To grasp reasons for creating and implementing a medical records policy for the health care practitioner's withdrawal from practice, incapacity, or death
Why Should You Attend:
Working in today's diverse,
fast-changing, multidisciplinary health care
environment, record keeping varies greatly
from health care professional to health care
professional. In addition to clinical
requirements of a specific profession,
additional state laws set forth the content
and retention of other types of records, other
than clinical records of a patient, that are
also kept by the professional, such as
supervisory agreements with other
professionals subordinate to them as well as
their own unique record content requirements.
The professional should attend to
understand a broad perspective on the many
sources of requirements for the retention and
disposition of medical records across the
spectrum of health care, both legal and
private/contractual requirements.
One area covered specifically
concerns electronic record such when mental
health services are offered over the internet,
the risks of breaches of confidentiality also
vastly increase. And when the successful
doctor-patient relationship is over, how does
the health care practitioner providing a
mental health service dispose of these
electronic records?
In addition to the sources of rules
that govern the confidentiality, retention,
and disposition of medical records, there
are other sources of requirements for
compliance with facility laws and
contractual agreements.
In addition to state law requirements, how
long should the health care practitioner
retain records for the possible, future
defense of a malpractice claim for negligent
treatment? Or to retain such medical records
when the patient is a minor? Or to defend a
possible complaint and disciplinary action
by a state regulatory agency which could
revoke the professional license of the
practitioner? Find the answers to these
questions governing the retention of medical
records in broad contexts
Instructor
Mark R. Brengelman JD, MA
Mark worked as the assigned counsel to numerous health professions licensure boards as an Assistant Attorney General for the Commonwealth of Kentucky. Moving to private practice, he now helps private clients including health care practitioners who are professionally licensed in a wide variety of contexts.
Mark became interested in the law when he graduated with both Bachelor's and Master's degrees in Philosophy from Emory University in Atlanta. He then earned a Juris Doctorate from the University of Kentucky College of Law. In 1995, Mark became an Assistant Attorney General and focused in administrative and professional law where he represented multiple boards as General Counsel and Prosecuting Attorney.
Mark is a frequent participant in continuing education and has been a presenter for over thirty-one national and state organizations and private companies, including webinars and in-person seminars. National and state organizations include the Kentucky Bar Association, the Kentucky Office of the Attorney General, and the National Attorneys General Training and Research Institute.
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