Medical Records in Georgia: Rights, Pros & Cons

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Table of Contents

Introduction
Who Owns Medical Records in Georgia?
Rights
Advantages of Effective Medical Recording
Disadvantages of Medical Recording
Medical Records Retention
Conclusion
Works Cited

Introduction

Georgia is a country that has always been keen on the health of its citizens. Georgia department of Community Health, Division of Public Health is the place where people of Georgia entirely depend on, in the matters of health records. It has several divisions created to ensure quality health and taking health care closer to the people of Georgia. This department gives guidance to the citizens on issues related to medical records, their rights, ownership of medical record, how to access such records among others things (Georgia Department of Community Health, 2010).

Who Owns Medical Records in Georgia?

Medical records in Georgia are owned by the patients but are mainly kept confidentially in the health care centers, where the patient has all the right to access them. They contain a medical history of a person’s health condition and treatment, and medical practitioners to treat the patient use them. Medical records are private thus should not be accessed by anyone without the owners permission (Affinity Health System, 2010). A federal law in Georgia known as the HIPAA (Health and Insurance and Accountability Act) privacy rule gives the citizens rights to access and amend their medical information (Pritts, 2005).

The Centre on Medical Record Rights and Privacy based at Georgetown University’s Health Policy Institute is dedicated to creating public awareness in Georgia on the rights of the public on their health information. The center does research on health services and policy in order to give the citizens quality services. It focuses much on how to give the Georgian citizens privacy protection on their medical records. This centre works in collaboration with HIPAA, the fair and Accurate Credit transaction Act and the state laws whereby their main objective is protection, privacy, and awareness of medical records rights (Pritts, 2005).

HIPAA privacy rule, which ensures privacy of individual health information and sets standards for individual health information stored through electronic means, is usually enforced by the office of civil rights. In conjunction with HIPAA, there exists a patient’s safety rule, which improves patient’s safety by protecting any identifiable information issued for the safety purposes of patients. HIPAA rule does not apply to every medical personnel but mainly affects those who use electronic means to send medical information especially for administrative or financial reasons (Pritts, 2005).

Rights

The following are some of the rights that have been put in place in Georgia concerning medical information (Pritts, 2005).

In this era of high use of technology, most health practitioners use computer and services like interment when treating their patients. In this case, most of the records are stored in the computers in softcopy and the patient may not necessarily carry a hardcopy of the same. Therefore, HIPAA and Georgia state laws give every person a right to access and get a copy of health information within a month upon request for it; and the law allows medical practitioner to charge you for the services offered.
The patient has the right to amend his medical record in such a way that it includes certain information that is deemed more relevant and reliable.
Every person has a right to file a complaint with either the office for civil rights or with the agency that regulates your personal doctor in case he denies you access to your medical records or he denies you a copy or the a chance to amend them.
In case a medical practitioner violates any of the patient’s rights, she is free to file a case against him/her in a legal office (Pritts, 2005).

Advantages of Effective Medical Recording

Effective medical recording in Georgia is mostly determined by enforcement of the HIPAA private policy thus the policy determines the benefits of effective medical recording through Electronic medical records. First, HIPAA has given Georgian citizens right to access, amend, and have a copy of their medical history. This prevents them from any manipulation based on their medical information. The privacy law has prevented employers from accessing employee health info at will thus; they no longer make decision based on the health status. This has enabled employees with health issues to change jobs with no worry that they may lose due to their health status (Andrew, 2010).

Considering the use of EMRs in keeping records, many positive results can be gained unlike handwritten records, which were highly prone to inaccuracy. EMR are therefore considered standard. Paper records may easily be destroyed by natural catastrophes but digital information is always safe. It also boosts remembrances of past illness since people are prone to forgetting. They are cost and time effective since all data is consolidated in one place thus saving time and money of bringing paper records of a long time together (MandaSpring, 2008).

Disadvantages of Medical Recording

The Georgian medical recording system depends a lot on HIPAA, whose effects have not been wholly positive. For instance, the rights for a patient to obtain a copy of his medical records have considerably increased paper work for doctors making the work tedious. The laws have also made medical practitioners to be overcautious when releasing patient’s confidential information at times requiring them to be present personally or to submit written request on their own letterhead thus making the process time consuming and expensive (Andrews, 2010).

Furthermore, since Georgian medical recording is more inclined to EMRs, they also have their negative impacts. For instance, EMRs are easily accessible and this may leak patient’s sensitive information among the staff members. Excessive accessibilities can also lead to either accidental or intentional alteration of medical records leading to incorrect medication. EMRs are also expensive to implement in the hospitals since the machinery is costly and requires personnel training to be used effectively. Furthermore, EMRs utilizes a central database and some health institutions may not be able to utilize this leading in inconsistence in patient’s record (Volz, 2010; MandaSpring, 2008).

Medical Records Retention

The General rule in Georgia states that an adult patient’s “medical records (including any notes, lab reports and biopsy slides) must be maintained for at least 10 years from the date the item was created, usually the date of the last visit or treatment” (MAG, 2010). If the patient was admitted in a hospital, the hospital rule says that the patient’s records should be retained for the next six years form the date of discharge, which contradicts with the statute rule. For minors, the medical records should be retained until when they are twenty-seven years old. Records should be retained indefinitely regardless of the patient’s opinion or future outcome (MAG, 2010).

This length of time is patients friendly since his medical history can be traced and related incase of a prevailing ailment. However, it is costly to the health care centers since they have to acquire high-class machines to accommodate this and still, some medical history may not be friendly to the future of the patient. The Georgia law on medical retention gives all conditions for retention and discarding of medical records (MAG, 2008)

Conclusion

Medical records are always very important assets for the effective treatment and medical care on a patient. The Georgia government has been aware of this and has laid down laws to protect patient’s medical records. The law gives both the patient and the health care professionals their own rights to ensure that none of them is biased on this field. This maintains that a person’s medical history is private and it should be handled with confidentiality.

Works Cited

Affinity Health System. (2010). Medical Records. Web.

MAG mutual. (2010). Risk Management FAQ’s. Web.

MandaSpring. (2008). EMR Advantages and Disadvantages. Brett Juchem. Web.

Medical Association of Georgia. (2008). Retention of Medical Records Law. Web.

Pritts, J. (2005). Your Medical Record Rights in Georgia. Georgia: Georgetown University. Web.

Andrew, J. (2010). What Are Some Pros & Cons of HIPAA? Web.

Volz, S. (2010). The Advantages & Disadvantages of EMRs. Web.

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