Question

what would you do if you saw a nurse making a change in a patient's medical chart after receiving a subpoena duces tecum for tge medical record?

Answer 1

Medical records are the source of information to understand patients treatment progress. Medical records plays an vital legal document. Health care professionals must write medical records neat and legible and there should nor be any overwriting or spelling errors.

Subpoena duces tecum is an order given by court to the hospital to hand over all medical documents to the court. Under Health insurance portability and accountability act all health workers must ensure confidentiality and privacy of the medical records.

In this scenario nurse making a change in a patient's medical chart after receiving subpoena duces tech is considered as HIPAA violations . The nurse is warned and the reason for manipulating the record should be identified first. If the correction of error is major on medications or other means nurse is under legal pursuits. Punishment may vary from imprisonment to penalty ranging from $100- $50,000.

The hospital is also under HIPAA violations and become a part of breeching the health care worker breeching the confidentiality and privacy.