Q: A cardiologist thinks he has the right to access our hospital's daily admission listing (including mental health patients) in search of anyone who may be a patient in his private practice. He thinks it is important to say hello and know what's going on with them; he sees this as related to continuity of care. Our hospital allows the medical staff to access information regarding their patients when the physicians are attending, consulting, or surgeons involved in a particular episode of care. Should we make the entire patient listing available to all medical staff members?
A: Many hospitals allow medical staff members to access complete census lists, but your hospital has taken a more limited approach that better protects patient privacy. If this physician is not involved in the patient's care during hospitalization, there's no need for him to know that the patient is in the hospital. If the patient has cardiology problems that need evaluation during hospitalization, the patient will probably tell the attending physician who his or her cardiologist is, and the attending physician can call him in on a consult.
Editor's note: Mary Brandt, president of Bellaire, TX-based Brandt & Associates, LLC, answered this question. This is not legal advice. Consult your attorney for legal matters.
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Survey: Most say EHR benefits outweigh risks
Forty-seven percent of respondents to Kaiser Permanente's recent telephone survey of 1,000 Americans say that paper records are more secure than electronic health records (EHR). In addition, 57% say that they have never heard or read about EHRs.
Despite this unfamiliarity, however, 73% agree that the benefits of EHRs in emergencies and in improving quality of care outweigh privacy and security worries. The survey also found that:
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Click here for more information.
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Gun buyer database needs clash with state privacy laws
Although there is support in Congress to require states to report mental health records to the federal gun buyer database, state privacy laws might hamper the effort, reports The New York Times.
The recent shootings at Virginia Tech have boosted support for a bill that Representative Carolyn McCarthy (D-NY) and Senator Charles E. Schumer (D-NY) have put forward. The bill would provide money to states that submit their mental health records to the database and withhold money from those that don't, according to The Times.
Click here to read The Times article.
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A new Web site called In Case of Emergency: Rx History will provide prescription histories to physicians and pharmacists anywhere in the country after a disaster. Based on a site that was cobbled together after Hurricane Katrina, Rx History will offer fast, secure, HIPAA-compliant access to displaced people's medication information.
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