Re: Medical Records

On 4/12/99, Pat Sloane <patsloane[_at_]aol.com> wrote:
>
> A patient is being treated by a celebrity physician whose methods are
> controversial.
>
> The patient obtains his own medical records from the physician, who is
> required by law to provide copies.
>
> The patient dies. His executor feels that the physician hastened the
> patient's death and that this is self-evident from the medical records,
> which show the patient's vital signs over a period of time and what the
> physician was prescribing.
>
> The executor presumably (in my unlearned option) has a right to transmit
> the records to the appropriate committee of the AMA with a letter of
> complaint about the physician.
>
> But does the executor have a right, say (without the permission of the
> physician), to publish the decedants medical records, or relevant part
> thereof, as part of an article that is critical of the physician? My
> guess is not, though I'm not sure why.
>
> Who "owns" a patient's medical records? the patient? the physician?

Ownership of medical records has been, at least until recently, a creature of state law. A common description states that the patient owns the information while the provider owns the medium, in other words, the provider owns the paper upon which the narrative describing my last visit is printed.

Regarding the rights of the executor-in Massachusetts, upon the death of a person, the executor becomes the holder of all the confidentiality rights that person had, including the right to their medical information and can exercise those rights as if they were the decedent.

Absent other issues, such as defamation, in a jurisdiction such as Massachusetts, the executor would likely have the right to publicize the course of treatment.

Denise McWilliams
<dmcw[_at_]world.std.com> Received on Tue Apr 13 1999 - 11:45:44 GMT