Our system (Torex Premiere) used to have a delete function that could only
be accessed by the Computer Supervisor. It trawled all the files and removed
each relevant bit. It had to be removed for RFA4 - we can still delete a
patient, but all it does now is change their reg status to "Deleted".
It didn't trawl the backups though..........
-----Original Message-----
From: [log in to unmask]
[mailto:[log in to unmask]]On Behalf Of Adrian Midgley
Sent: 05 August 1998 17:27
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Removing patient records from practice computers
I see in a print journal today that one of the less successful
resolutions of complaints has involved the removal of a pateint's
record from the computer of their former GP.
This needed a visit from an engineer to "remove it bit by bit".
Interesting.
1. Do we feel we either have to do that when it is demanded, or ought
to do it when asked, or indeed when th epatient has gone away and
promised not to come back or to make us refer to our notes any more?
2. If we do, do we remove all the relevant entries from the audit
trail - that being a series of records capable fo reconstructing the
patient record at any time, as it was at any previous time.
3. If so does it scupper the audit trail as a record of what was on
the record for others?
4. Should we pay for such bit stripping, or should the patient be
charged?
5. If all the record of a particular patient was stored in one file -
or a small number of files peculiar to that pateint, then removing them
would not require a visit from an engineer.
6. I wonder if he got the oldest backup tapes as well?
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