Can I Sue My Doctor for Not Releasing My Medical Records

A common question that clients enquire when pursuing a medical malpractice case is, "Will my physician alter my medical tape to hide the evidence?"

Though information technology seems like doctors and other healthcare providers accused of malpractice might simply modify medical records to protect themselves, at that place are several reasons why doing then is not such a proficient idea for them.

Start, falsifying a medical tape is a crime punishable by a fine or even jail time. Additionally, altering medical records can make it harder for doctors to win medical malpractice cases.

Juries do not trust liars, and a questionable alter to a record implies that something is existence covered upward. In other words, the consequences of getting caught altering a medical record are probably worse than the consequences of telling the truth.

Secondly, it is hard to get away with falsifying medical records. Usually, in medical settings, documents are shared among doctors and nurses, not to mention a patient's health insurance provider and testing facilities.

Discrepancies tin be spotted among different copies of a document besides as in a patient'due south medical bills. With written records, forensic scientists can tell when a document has been changed by looking at inks and indentations in the newspaper. It's besides easy to track changes in electronic documents.

Despite the risks, we still see contradistinct medical records. Sometimes, when a healthcare provider is defenseless, hard cases of a sudden go much easier to win. Conversely, cases with a lot of promise are sometimes lost considering there is not an authentic tape of what happened, preventing lawyers from being able to support their case with prove.

Is It Illegal to Alter Medical Records?

Altering a medical tape is a criminal offense and tin can also exist used against doctors in medical malpractice cases. However, it is not illegal for medical professionals to make honest updates to records, as long as they properly mark what they are doing and practice not obscure information.

To brand a correction, doctors should make a new annotation and include the electric current date and time. The note should be labeled, "Tardily Entry," "Correction," or "Annex."

They should explain the relationship of the note to a previous i, including the reason for the error, and the source of the new information. Records should always reverberate who did what. Finally, they should draw a line through the incorrect entry—the text, however, should still be legible.

If an omission in a medical record is noticed afterward a short corporeality of fourth dimension and a physician tin distinctly remember administering medication or other treatment, a late entry should exist made.

However, if a day or more has passed, information technology is unlikely that the physician can reliably recall exactly what happened. Filling in missing information after the fact may lead to a misrepresentation of events. As such, filling in omissions may also be an illegal act.

According to Maryland law, a healthcare provider who knowingly or willfully destroys, alters, or otherwise obscures a medical record or other information virtually a patient to conceal evidence is guilty of a misdemeanor and is subject to a fine of up to $5,000 and/or imprisonment up to one year. They volition also lose their medical license.

What is a Medical Record?

A medical record is essentially a summary of your wellness history. Your master care doctor has a medical record for you, only so does every other healthcare facility you take used, from specialists to hospitals.

You can qualify that your medical records exist sent to another healthcare provider for continuity of care. Otherwise, your medical records will not exist consolidated. There has been an endeavor in recent years to simplify the sharing of medical records betwixt providers through digitization. Electronic health records (EHRs) contain a summary of your wellness and treatment history and tin exist shared more easily.

However, at that place still is not a standard nationwide software or process for medical professionals to share information.  This ways that you may have to put in multiple requests if you want a complete re-create of your medical tape.

Your medical record includes:

• Personal Information (proper name, SSN, etc.)
• Family Medical History (risk of high blood pressure level, anxiety, etc.)
• Medical History (medical weather condition, past illnesses/complaints, pregnancies, immunizations, recreational drug use, allergies, etc.)
• Referrals
• Test Results (physicals, x-rays, lab reports, scans, etc.)
• Medication and Treatment History (drugs used, the possibility of drug interaction, success/failure of by treatments, past surgeries, etc.)
• Medical Directives (patient's wishes about their medical care if they get unresponsive)
• Autopsy Report/Death Certificate

Who Can Access My Medical Record and Where Is It Kept?

Although patients have the right to access a copy of their medical records, original documents belong to the healthcare facility that created them.

Medico's offices and hospitals are required to keep medical records on the premises in a secure location. They may share your records electronically with your other providers if you grant permission. This is not an automatic or instant process, however, which is why you are oftentimes asked questions about your health history when you get to a new facility.

Under the Wellness Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPPA), patients accept a right to receive a copy of their medical and billing records. Facilities do charge a fee for copying and mailing records. However, they cannot legally deny yous a re-create considering you take non paid their fee. It often takes multiple letters and calls to get the facility to send the records.

In a lawsuit, medical records are essential evidence. Insurance providers can review your records and will asking a copy if you file a lawsuit. A patient's personal representative can too collect their medical records, which is particularly useful in cases of wrongful decease.

The regime and law enforcement likewise have the right to admission medical records in certain situations. For more on how to access your medical records and how our lawyers can help, click hither.

Altered Medical Record Verdicts and Settlements

The following verdicts and settlements are examples of lawsuits that involve examples of falsifying medical records.  Your example will not necessarily expect like these cases. The settlement value of a case, for example, depends largely on the type of injury yous or a loved one suffered. Our lawyers have compiled information on the value of cases by injury type.

• 2020, Kentucky: $v,000,000 Verdict A nursing home admitted an 85-year-one-time woman. Its staff designated her every bit a choking chance and ordered a soft diet. Despite the society, they fed her a regular 1. Four months into her stay, the woman experienced ii choking incidents within 24 hours. The first involved a strawberry, while the 2d involved a tomato. Three months afterwards, she choked on an unknown nutrient item. The nursing dwelling staff found her unresponsive. After they unsuccessfully performed the Heimlich maneuver, the woman died. Her family alleged that the nursing dwelling house staff'due south failure to manage her choking gamble acquired her death. They likewise declared that they posthumously altered her medical records past omitting the fatal choking upshot. The family's forensic document practiced concurred. The nursing domicile denied all allegations. It argued that her advanced age and co-morbidities caused a natural expiry. Those arguments failed plainly.  Juries practise not similar doctors that dice and that was likely important in this verdict.
• 2019, Pennsylvania: $iii,380,000 Verdict A toddler is taken to the pediatrician for airsickness. The pediatrician prescribes nausea medication, and the family goes dwelling. That night, the toddler becomes unresponsive, and her parents take her to the ER. Early the next forenoon the toddler is pronounced dead. Her bowel had strangulated due to a astringent hernia. Afterward, the toddler'southward parents criminate that the hospital did not take her symptoms seriously. She had been vomiting bile, they claim, an indicator of bowel obstruction and a surgical emergency. Given the vomiting, doctors should have ordered testing that would have revealed the obstructed bowel in time to salvage their daughter'southward life. It is as well discovered that "bilious vomiting" was written on the girl's medical record but was later removed. The hospital claims that the entry was written by mistake and that the girl was already too far gone to relieve when she came into the hospital. Even so, due to the illegally contradistinct medical record, the court grants the parent's motion for an adverse inference accuse. In other words, the fact that the hospital felt compelled to alter the medical record indicated that it must have independent unfavorable information. A jury finds in support of the plaintiff for $3.four one thousand thousand.
• 2018, Texas: $vii,635,000 Verdict A 14-year-old girl commits suicide shortly after her pediatrician prescribes an antidepressant to treat her depression. Her parents allege that the pediatrician should not have prescribed the drug since antidepressants increase the risk of suicide in children and teens. Furthermore, they say that the pediatrician did not warn them of this risk. When the mother requests medical records from the pediatrician's office, she discovers that the defendant pediatrician altered her daughter's records, resulting in two unlike sets. The doctor lied to protect himself from a malpractice lawsuit.  It is surprising how often doctors get caught in a lie considering there they don't make certain all sets of records have been contradistinct. Subsequently a long trial, a jury awards the parents more than $7 million.
• 2018, West Virginia: $five,500,000 Verdict A 75-year-old man is taken into intensive care complaining of trouble animate. Doctors place 2 tubes. An endotracheal tube helps him exhale and a nasogastric tube, which passes from the nose into the tum, allows doctors to requite him food and medicine. While doctors are placing the nasogastric tube, the endotracheal tube is dislodged. A respiratory therapist is paged, who replaces the tube incorrectly. The homo'due south oxygen level and heart rate brainstorm to drop. Respiratory staff brainstorm CPR, and another md from the ER is chosen. She notes the wrong placement of the animate tube and makes a correction. However, they are unable to resuscitate the man, and he is pronounced dead. A jury awards $5.5 1000000 to the homo, who is survived past his wife.

One question that gets asked is can you sue a doctor for lying in the records?  You can sue a md for falsifying medical records but yous need some actual impairment to you to accept a reasonable likelihood of a settlement or verdict.  In all these examples of falsifying medical records, in that location was underlying harm to the patient.

Contact Our Malpractice Lawyers

If you believe you take been a victim of medical negligence, click here or call usa at 800-553-8082. Our experienced lawyers handle serious medical malpractice cases and may be able to assist y'all win a settlement.

Information for Medical Malpractice Victims

• Overview of medical malpractice cases
• Often asked questions
• What level of compensation tin can I expect?

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Source: https://www.millerandzois.com/doctor-alter-records.html

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