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Good listening and reading
When surgeons are severed from their records
Dr Darren Molony
surgeons use electronic health records exclusively—with these records housed on a shared server within a group or associate practice. Moving practice may therefore require a database extraction of records created by that surgeon. It is crucial that a surgeon is able to retain access to their patients’ medical records in their entirety, throughout their career with ongoing access to them, even after ceasing practice. All surgeons have an obligation to monitor their own performance and outcomes and the medical records represent the most powerful audit tool available to undertake this.
Medical records were once composed of hand-written notes and annotations but over time they have evolved into complex records. Current records are likely to include demographic data, correspondence, hospital discharge summaries, pathology, radiology, clinical images and videos, medical certificates and medicolegal reports, as well as attendance records and associated Medicare billing data. The question of who owns medical records has previously been legally resolved. In Breen vs Williams, High Court of Australia,1996, Justice Brennan states, ‘Documents prepared by a professional person to assist the professional to perform his or her professional duties are, ... the property of the professional’. In the same case, Justices Gaudron and McHugh state, ‘statute or contract apart, medical records prepared by a doctor, are the property of the doctor’. Increasingly, surgeons change practice locations, business structures and/or business partners over the course of their careers. Historically, moving practice involved picking up boxes of patient cards, the booking diary and hanging up a new shingle on another building. Today many
Electronic records link Medicare Benefits Schedule item numbers, health insurance fund billing data with patient and procedure data, and importantly, patient outcomes. Across a career, a sub-specialist surgeon will accumulate a significant and valuable dataset. There may be ethical and professional obligations to share these datasets with national or international peers, contribute to specialty databases on an ongoing basis—particularly if patients have been involved in research and/ or clinical trials. Additionally, medical indemnity providers recommend that all clinicians maintain their records for at least seven years (or, in the case of paediatric patients, seven years post the 18th birthday of that patient). Further, in the case of patients treated for cancer, some indemnifiers recommend indefinite maintenance of the records. For these reasons, it is unacceptable for a surgeon to be provided with no, or restricted access to their case notes, or access on an ad hoc, patient by patient basis, simply for choosing to move practice or business structure. Medical indemnity providers should support their surgical members in accessing and maintaining their complete patient
records, as not to do so exposes surgeons, indemnifiers, and most importantly, the patients to significant risk. Arguments that extracting the records is a breach of privacy are unfounded given there is no third party involvement. It is imperative that surgeons entering into private practice make contractual clarifications of ownership of their medical records and establish the terms of access to, and storage of, electronic patient records. Should the surgeon choose to move practice, any restriction to the surgeon’s access to the medical records of their patients—either from a commercial or professional perspective— is not acting in the best interests of the patient. I would recommend taking the following approach: 1. When joining a practice as an associate or as a partner include a section in the contract specifically for the medical records. a. Clarify the rights to ownership of any intellectual property or copyright of any records created during the care of any patient. b. Include entitlement to a copy of previously existing notes provided within the practice where they formed part of a professional consultation, and contributed to professional opinion, as they constitute an extensive referral correspondence. c. Where more than one surgeon has contributed to the overall care of a patient, all surgeons should be entitled to a complete copy of the records.
