- Joined
- Sep 28, 2017
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A while back, I testified in a court hearing regarding a pediatric patient, as there was a dispute between the divorced parents about treatment and the judge wanted my opinion. Prior to the hearing, one of the attorneys provided me with around 200 pages of documentation, which were referred to during the hearing. About 99% of it was just a reproduction of the medical record, with copies of my progress notes, screening questionnaires completed by parents and school teachers, details about the patient's medical history and vaccination records, etc., all of which is already in the medical record. The remaining 1% included information about the subpoena, and interestingly, a few pages of court documents which may have been sent to me by mistake and appear to be about a couple of individuals I have never met. For what it's worth, I am no longer treating the patient.
I am wondering if this sort of documentation needs to be scanned into the medical record, or if it can just be tossed into the shredder. I don't think that it adds anything to the medical record, really, since it is just a copy of the record itself, plus a few pages relating to the subpoena (and some apparently random document which I don't think even pertains to my patient). From a medicolegal perspective, would it be okay to just shred this thick stack of paper?
I am wondering if this sort of documentation needs to be scanned into the medical record, or if it can just be tossed into the shredder. I don't think that it adds anything to the medical record, really, since it is just a copy of the record itself, plus a few pages relating to the subpoena (and some apparently random document which I don't think even pertains to my patient). From a medicolegal perspective, would it be okay to just shred this thick stack of paper?