At what point do you really get great access to patient files?

[loveoforganic]

---

Members don't see this ad.

As soon as you enter med school, do you pretty much have full access to any associated facilities' patient files, assuming whatever study you're proposing makes it through the correct IRB?

 

[QofQuimica]

As soon as you enter med school, do you pretty much have full access to any associated facilities' patient files, assuming whatever study you're proposing makes it through the correct IRB?

No, you will not instantly have access to the hospital's medical records as soon as you matriculate into med school. Access to patient charts is on a need-to-know basis. So, if you're an MS1 or MS2, you often won't have any access to patient charts at all because you're not seeing patients. When you're a clinical student (MS3 and MS4), you will only be allowed access to the charts of patients you are caring for, and only after you are HIPAA trained. (HIPAA is the privacy law that governs who may see patient information, under what circumstances, etc.) Likewise, if you are doing clinical research that requires you to look at patient charts with identifying information, you will have whatever access is required after you get HIPAA trained. You may also have to undergo CITI ethics training on conducting research with patients. But a lot of clinical research is retrospective, meaning that it's done on large, deidentified databases where you will not associate the information with the specific patients' charts. In that case, you don't need any access to patient charts, and you won't be given any access.

 

[Neuronix]

Likewise, if you are doing clinical research that requires you to look at patient charts with identifying information, you will have whatever access is required after you get HIPAA trained.

More like, after IRB review and approval. And they are very nitpicky--they don't grant access to charts (and a small, selective number at that) just because you asked for it.

 

[C5toC9]

Once you get access, you can access any patient's records, but obviously you should only access the ones you need and not search up random patients.

 

[loveoforganic]

Thanks for the help!

 

[dmblue]

lol HIPAA, what a joke

 

[QofQuimica]

lol HIPAA, what a joke

I'm going to go out on a limb here and guess that you haven't gotten to your rotation years yet. 😉

The law itself may border on the absurd at times--you're not even allowed to look at your *own* medical record, for goodness sake. But the potential repercussions for digging into charts where you have no business sticking your nose won't exactly make you laugh. I've not heard of a student getting into trouble for a HIPAA violation, but while I've been a student here, there have been several hospital employees who got fired for doing things like reading the charts of well-known people who were in the hospital. Big Brother is watching.

 

[Neuronix]

I'm going to go out on a limb here and guess that you haven't gotten to your rotation years yet. 😉

The law itself may border on the absurd at times--you're not even allowed to look at your *own* medical record, for goodness sake.

Please show me where in the law it states you may not access your own medical record. It doesn't. This is a pure cya move by hospitals that want to limit access to charts or at least know about chart access to prevent or prepare for lawsuits. They claim this is a hippa precaution because people will believe it.

 

[QofQuimica]

Please show me where in the law it states you may not access your own medical record. It doesn't. This is a pure cya move by hospitals that want to limit access to charts or at least know about chart access to prevent or prepare for lawsuits. They claim this is a hippa precaution because people will believe it.

Well, I believe they'd enforce that rule if they caught me breaking it, and seeing as I'm nine months away from graduating, I ain't looking to have any run-ins with the powers that be over a silly rule before I can walk across the stage. But in a somewhat tongue-in-cheek answer to your question, no, I cannot tell you which line of which paragraph of which section of the hundreds of pages of the HIPAA law says that thou shalt not read your own medical record, and if you've actually read the text of the entire law, you're obviously both incredibly dedicated and also incredibly bored. Regardless, I just know that I won't be reading mine without authorizing the hospital to release a copy of my medical record to myself. Absurdly, that *is* allowed.

 

[Neuronix]

no, I cannot tell you which line of which paragraph of which section of the hundreds of pages of the HIPAA law says that thou shalt not read your own medical record, and if you've actually read the text of the entire law, you're obviously both incredibly dedicated and also incredibly bored.

My message is quite simple: don't believe everything you're told. It may be against your hospital's policy to view your own medical record, but it's not against HIPAA.

http://www.hcpro.com/CCP-70227-862/...yees-to-access-their-own-medical-records.html

Employees have the right to access their own records as any patient would.

...

The same process should be in place for employees to request access to their records as any other patient. This will give your organization knowledge of the review and some control over when they review the record.

 

[QofQuimica]

My message is quite simple: don't believe everything you're told. It may be against your hospital's policy to view your own medical record, but it's not against HIPAA.

http://www.hcpro.com/CCP-70227-862/...yees-to-access-their-own-medical-records.html

What you quoted doesn't mean you have permission to access your own chart the way any other *employee* would. I mean, the average patient cannot just go log into the EMR and read their own chart! That quote of yours says that you can get your records released to yourself the same as any other patient, which is what I already said.

 

[Neuronix]

What you quoted doesn't mean you have permission to access your own chart the way any other *employee* would. I mean, the average patient cannot just go log into the EMR and read their own chart! That quote of yours says that you can get your records released to yourself the same as any other patient, which is what I already said.

This doesn't alter the point I'm making here. You can reason out why employees should not access their medical records all you want. It's still not forbidden by HIPAA.

 

[QofQuimica]

This doesn't alter the point I'm making here. You can reason out why employees should not access their medical records all you want. It's still not forbidden by HIPAA.

We're talking past one another here. You assume that everything not explicitly forbidden by HIPAA is permitted. I assume (and apparently the lawyers do too) that everything not explicitly permitted by HIPAA is forbidden. Considering the spirit of the law, your interpretation is probably a bit optimistic. Regardless, it's a good thing that law is not your or my day job.

 

[dmblue]

I'm going to go out on a limb here and guess that you haven't gotten to your rotation years yet. 😉

The law itself may border on the absurd at times--you're not even allowed to look at your *own* medical record, for goodness sake. But the potential repercussions for digging into charts where you have no business sticking your nose won't exactly make you laugh. I've not heard of a student getting into trouble for a HIPAA violation, but while I've been a student here, there have been several hospital employees who got fired for doing things like reading the charts of well-known people who were in the hospital. Big Brother is watching.

Yes, if you look up someone famous you are gonna get in trouble most likely. But, I have seen egregious violations before at a few different hospitals. People rarely get in any sort of trouble. HIPAA was a good idea, but in reality it's just more paperwork and doesn't get enforced properly.

 

[C5toC9]

why did the OP want really great access to patient files anyway?

 

[loveoforganic]

To execute the vast medicaid fraud plot I've been planning for years...

 

[QofQuimica]

To execute the vast medicaid fraud plot I've been planning for years...

Couldn't you have done that with sort of great access to patient files? 😛

 

[loveoforganic]

You obviously underestimate the scale of this plot 🙂