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Medical Records Briefing Strategies for Health Care Compliance

The HIPAA privacy rule permits patients to amend their medical records—and recognition of this right is on the rise as more hospitals transition from paper to EHRs.

With this increase in mind, be sure to ask these questions when selecting an EHR vendor:

• Does the vendor’s system allow amendments, or will it be necessary to amend records on paper and then scan them into the record?
• Does the vendor’s system allow you to easily view corrections? This information helps physicians understand why other practitioners may have made certain clinical decisions based on information available at the time.
• Does the vendor provide an audit trail? If so, be sure to activate it.

This tip comes from the April issue of Medical Records Briefing.