Recent legislation in the areas of data protection and freedom of information have implications for medical record-keeping.

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Legislation implication on Medical Record Keeping

Hippocratic with creation in 400 B .C was meant to protect the privacy of patient and it has become the physician 's code of conduct . Over , time the health information was misused due to access by individuals who are not subject to the code of conduct . The health information about patient was used by employees , insurers , government administrators and attorney who caused a lot of victimisation of the concerned patient . The misuse of patient information became rampant

and this led to formation of regulatory protection since the information is highly sensitive and personals . 1 (pp22-23 )4

The regulatory regime of protecting patients ' information is complex and fragmented . This law apply to specific areas or people or organizations for example children , government and protection of information related to HIV /AIDS . The first comprehensive Federal law Health Insurance portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA under privacy rule was effected in 2003 . Security Rule under HIPAA was enacted in 2005 . In US , the Medical Privacy Rule was published in 2002 by Department of Health and Human Services (HHS ) and was enacted in April , 2001 with compliance required by April 2003 . The Privacy rule was designed to ensure business activity of health providers is subject to privacy . 2-5 This research analyses how the health organisations have responded and how compliance is affected by structure and security of databases . Most big hospitals especially government hospitals have been known to violated the Privacy Act especially with technological development

The Privacy Act 1974 disallows any federal agency to disclose information without consent of the individual . The Americans with disability Act that apply to businesses with more than twenty five employees state that employee may not ask for medical information prior absorbing the employee . Once hired , medical tests can only be done to all employees occupying same position and not an individual . 3 (pp34 )5

The enacting of Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act in 1996 called for development of standards for the exchange of electronic health information . Under the act , patients ' rights were defined and measures put in place to limit access of medical records . Under the Act those who misuse information would face serious legal ramifications . 5

In many countries , privacy or data collection laws are part of freedom of legislation . The use of medical records to gather important clinical information is vital in health care research efforts . The legislative laws on medical records confidentially have contributed to the discussion for the need to HIPAA give patients ' privacy . The legislation laws too allow essential health care research to proceed . In US the medical researchers requested consent of patients to gain access to their records . Consent of patients has led to improvement of medical services through the data collection from patients records used as samples in research . 4

The HIPAA Act 1996 allows patients to gain access to their medical records . The development of technology had led to improvement on data collection and freedom...