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By GRACE CORDOVANO, DEVEN McGRAW, and AARON MIRI
The HIPAA Privacy Rule gives patients the right to copies of their medical records, with rare exceptions. When patients need a copy of their medical records, most start the process by calling their doctor’s office and asking for how to get access. The receptionist or office staff point them in the right direction, whether it’s instructing them to write down their request and sending it to the office, pointing them to contact the medical records or radiology department (if the practice is large enough), or assisting them in setting up their patient portal, if the practice is using an electronic health record (EHR). Being able to connect with a person inside the four walls of medicine is often crucial for many patients and their carepartners who may be unsure of exactly how to request their records.
But what happens to those records when a doctor closes or leaves the practice?
Independent practices close for a variety of reasons. Physicians may merge with a large practice or health system, retire, they may sell or close their practice for personal reasons, they may file for bankruptcy, or they may get sick and die. The COVID19 pandemic has had devastating financial consequences on many small, independent, and rural practices, leading to their consequent closure, acquisition, or merger.
What should patients do when their doctor’s office closes, and they need a copy of their medical records? This is especially challenging when a doctor may not have had an EHR, as is the case with many independent practices as well as more rural settings. On September 26, 2020, a tweet from Cait DesRoches, Executive Director of OpenNotes, inquired about how a family member may get access to medical records from her physican’s practice that closed, triggering a robust conversation that led to the realization that patients and families are not well informed in these circumstances.
Prevention is Worth a Pound of Cure
It can be much more difficult to get copies of records after a practice has closed. Patients should get copies of their medical records as they are generated instead of waiting until they’re needed. HIPAA Privacy Rule guidance states that individuals can get digital copies of digital information (or even digital copies of records kept on paper, as long as the practice has a scanner). Companies are developing tools and services that enable individuals and their care partners to collect, use, and store health records. Request digital (or paper, if that is preferred) copies of blood work, imaging, discharge instructions, and corresponding reports before you leave the practice.
What Happens to Medical Records When Offices Close? The Law
The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) does not require a physician to retain medical records for any particular period of time. (HIPAA covered entities – which include physicians who bill health insurers for care – are required to keep records demonstrating compliance with HIPAA for at least six years – but those records are distinct from medical records.
) However, if the physician still has those medical records – or has placed them in storage for safekeeping – the HIPAA requirements to produce them when a patient requests still apply.
State laws typically set medical record retention requirements for physicians and may also require the physician to take particular steps (such as notifying a patient) prior to or upon closure of a practice.
An example of some of these state laws:
During the record retention period, these records are considered to be still “available” and subject to the HIPAA right of access. Consult the medical board or the state medical society in the state where the physician has practiced for further information about physician requirements in the event of closure of a practice. The Medical Board should also have information about how to file a complaint if the physician’s practice has closed without any notice or information about how to obtain records.
Irrespective of legal requirements, the American Academy of Family Physicians recommend that patients be notified by a letter that the office is closing, giving them the opportunity to obtain a copy of their medical records or have records forwarded to a physician of their choosing. The office may post an update on their website or social media page(s), if ones exist or run an ad in the local newspaper.
Patients should be notified who will be the custodian of the medical records and their contact information.
Sorry! The Office Is Closed
Unfortunately, the reality is that most individuals do not get copies of their medical records throughout their care journey. This leaves patients and carepartners in need of records facing significant uncertainty, stress, and frustration when they unexpectedly find out that their doctor’s office has closed. Here are a number of critical tips to assist patients in gathering their medical records, directly and indirectly, in the event their doctor’s office has closed.
(As noted above, state laws may allow for them to be destroyed even sooner than 10 years.)
Social media managers are often very responsive and may be an additional avenue for connecting individuals to the information they need if it is perceived that delays in response may be detrimental to their company’s reputation.
Consequently, the specific state’s county probate court may be contacted to confirm if there is a designated executor of estate that has authority over records retention processes. Alternatively, an obituary may list surviving next of kin which may also be contacted for more information on records retention.
Individuals may also file a complaint with the Office of Civil Rights (OCR) at the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) if all efforts have been exhausted and the needed medical records have not been obtained.
A closed practice does not need to be a dead end for patient access. Proactively requesting copies of medical records throughout one’s care journey can prevent encountering such patient access barriers. Continuing to share best practices for navigating patient access barriers, from legal, regulatory, and practical standpoints, is in the best interest of all patients.
Grace Cordovano, PhD, BCPA is a board-certified patient advocate specializing in the oncology space, a patient experience enhancer, and information unblocker.
Deven McGraw , JD, MPH, LLM (@healthprivacy) is the Chief Regulatory Officer at Ciitizen (and former official at OCR and ONC).
She blogs at ciitizen.com.
Aaron Miri is the Chief Information Officer for The University of Texas at Austin comprising of the Dell Medical School, UT Health Austin clinical enterprise, research, and community impact missions.
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Tagged as: Aaron Miri, Deven McGraw, Grace Cordovano, Health Data, HIPAA, Medical Records
The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) gives you control over your medical records. That means you can obtain your medical records when you need to and you can shield them from others. This includes paper records and charts as well as electronic health records.
It is a good idea to review your records periodically, such as each time you visit the doctor. By doing so, you learn what information is out there about you and can keep tabs on your health.
Because you know your body better than anyone, keeping tabs on your health data over time can alert you to any changes that you should bring up with your physician.
If you believe you have been a victim of medical negligence, you will need to obtain your medical records before you file for medical malpractice. This includes diagnoses, lab results, doctor’s notes, billing information, and other health data.
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The fastest and easiest way to get copies of your medical records is to contact your provider. For instance, if you are seeking orthodontic records, contact your orthodontist’s office. If you want to look at the lab values from your latest thyroid screening, get in touch with the office of your endocrinologist or internist.
Most providers have an easy, straightforward form you can fill out to request access to your medical records. They can provide you with a copy of this form in person or via email, mail, or fax.
You simply fill out the form with the requested information, provide proof of your identity, and you should receive immediate access to your records.
If your provider does not have a standard form, you can receive access to your records by making a written request. Include in the letter your identifying information, proof of identity, and the specific records you want to access.
A common challenge for patients is attempting to obtain medical records from doctors or healthcare providers who have retired, moved, or are no longer at the same practice.
If the practice where you received care is still open, you should be able to retrieve your records there even if your specific physician has moved on. You would simply contact the practice and fill out a records request the same as if your doctor still practiced there. As long as you can provide proof of your identity, the practice should still have your records on file.
If the practice itself is no longer in business, obtaining your records becomes slightly more challenging, but in most cases, you can obtain them by taking the following steps.
Tell them the name of your doctor and the name of the practice and see if they know where your records are being stored.
If that does not lead you to your records, get in touch with the state medical association. They can often help you track down records from doctors or practices no longer in operation.
Finally, if you are still having issues, make a list of the hospitals in the area and call them one by one. At some point, your doctor might have registered to treat patients through a local hospital, and if so, the doctor likely went through an extensive formal process to receive permission. The hospital then likely knows where the records of patients treated by that doctor are located.
In rare cases, a doctor can legally deny access to certain medical records. This situation occurs most commonly with mental health records. By law, your doctor can deny access to certain mental health records if they believe that letting you view your records might endanger your physical health or well-being.
If a healthcare professional decides to deny you access to your medical records for any reason, they must provide you with a written record detailing their decision.
If a doctor or facility tries to deny you access in an attempt to conceal altered hospital records, you could have grounds to file a malpractice claim.
The medical malpractice lawyers at Medical Malpractice Help can help you defend your rights as a patient. If you have any questions or concerns about the care you have received or the accuracy of your medical records, we want to help.
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Oksana Moseeva
obtained extracts and copies of her card
Author profile
At the end of March, for an article in Tinkoff Magazine, I needed to restore information about a medical intervention that was done many years ago.
I went to the clinic and found out that this was not an easy task at all: I had not visited a medical institution for more than five years, so my card was taken to the archive. The receptionist assured that it was impossible to issue a document from the repository to the patient. But I did not believe it and wrote a statement addressed to the head physician of the hospital. But even at this stage, there were some delays: it turned out that the archive was flooded and the documents were hopelessly damaged.
In the end, we managed to get some official information. I figured out what to do if I have to repeat this quest in the future. My article will be useful to everyone who was given a turn at the gate when trying to at least touch their own medical record.
There are many reasons to look into your medical record, and even if you want to do it purely out of curiosity, it's legal. Here are more serious reasons to go to the clinic for information about your health.
If you suspect that you are being treated incorrectly. And you want to make an extract from your medical record to show it to another specialist.
Art. 22 of the Federal Law of the Russian Federation "On the fundamentals of protecting the health of citizens"
For the payment of insurance. For example, if you have been injured, you must provide a certified copy of your medical record in order to receive compensation.
When moving. You can also order a card extract and bring it to the clinic at your new place of residence. Your new clinic can also order an extract based on attachment.
For court. If the patient has suffered from improper treatment and he or his legal representatives need to collect an evidence base in order to file a lawsuit in court.
Section 5, Art. 22 of the Federal Law "On the fundamentals of protecting the rights of citizens"
Usually, a person who is attached to a polyclinic has one card - outpatient.
If there is a dentist in a medical institution, the patient is also given a dental clinic. When a patient visits an orthodontist, a medical record of an orthodontic patient is entered in his name. The status of a medical institution - public or private - in this case does not matter, since the classification of documents will be the same.
If a woman is observed during pregnancy in a clinic, an individual pregnancy card is created in her name. When a patient is simply observed in a clinic by a gynecologist, a separate card is not entered, and all information is recorded in the outpatient card.
A person who was injured and was seen with it in the trauma department of a hospital can get an outpatient trauma card. In some cases, the patient is led until recovery is complete, and sometimes they are sent to remove stitches and undergo treatment at the polyclinic at the place of residence. There, a traumatologist observes a person, and information about visits is recorded in a standard outpatient card.
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A patient during his life can be attached to one clinic, but periodically visit specialists from other clinics, possibly private ones. And in each of these organizations, outpatient cards will be issued in his name. Information from all these clinics is not automatically transferred to the clinic to which the patient is assigned. But he, at his own request or at the request of a doctor, can provide extracts, certificates and copies of medical documents from other institutions.
Russian legislation clearly states that a patient has the right to receive information about his health - to get acquainted with his medical card, as well as to request extracts and copies. And it doesn't matter if it is stored in the registry or the archives of the clinic. You can also photograph or photocopy the contents of the card, but only in a medical organization and under the supervision of staff.
No one will allow you to take the card home, since by law it is the property of the organization.
With the introduction of electronic medical records, everything seemed to be simplified, but here's the problem: they do not contain information about earlier visits. Therefore, if you need to find old data, you will have to go the hard way.
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How to issue an electronic medical record
The problem of access to medical information is acute in our country, as most patients either do not know about their rights or know them partially. Medical institutions cleverly use this by setting individual rules and prohibitions in the organization. And there are several reasons for this.
Research of the Wise Lawyer portal in support of the global Open Science movement
Money lost by the Russian Federation on medical registrations would be enough for the "Rothenberg House" and several hospitals - Daily Storm
For example, medical workers are simply reluctant to do extra work .
And in some clinics, patients are credited to the cards with procedures that they did not do: for example, an annual medical examination, to which a person did not appear.
The medical institution needs this in order to improve annual indicators for disease prevention and receive money from the compulsory health insurance fund. And clinics, of course, do not want to disclose this information to the patient.
Another reason is that doctors keep the card incorrectly. For example, a person came to an appointment, but his complaints were not recorded in the card. Or the doctor did not measure blood pressure, but the data is in the document. The patient can read all this and file a complaint.
This is what every patient is really entitled to.
Personally review your medical records. The medical institution is obliged to allocate a quiet place in the room to the patient and give the opportunity to read the card, make extracts from it, photograph the pages.
And also, if possible, photocopy some data of the document, although the law does not say how exactly the patient should do this.
paragraphs 8 and 9 of the order of the Ministry of Health of the Russian Federation of November 12, 2021 "On the procedure for familiarizing the patient with medical documentation"PDF, 455 KB
The situation is a dead end: the clinic is not obliged to provide the patient with a copier or scanner, and not everyone can bring them with them. Although some medical institutions have paid copiers, therefore, if desired, the patient can make a copy of the documents he needs for money.
Receive statements and certified copies of your medical records, as well as data in electronic form, which is stored in a medical facility. To obtain this data, the patient or his legal representative must write an application addressed to the head physician, indicating in the application the reason why he needed this information. No valid reasons are listed in the law, so the patient can order an extract from the card and indicate that he needed it for personal purposes.
clause 7 of the order of the Ministry of Health of the Russian Federation "On approval of the procedures and terms for the provision of medical documents"
Anastasia Kornilova
lawyer, expert T—F
Author’s profile
Any type of medical record is an official legal document that contains personal information about a patient: complaints about diagnoses, methods of treatment, tests, operations. And also the address of his registration, marital status, phone number. This information is a medical secret, that is, the medical organization must protect it from being transferred to third parties.
The fact that a medical card is the property of a medical institution and cannot be handed out to patients is not explicitly stated in any law. However, there is a letter from the Ministry of Health, which says that the card must be kept at the registry.
And the federal law "On the Fundamentals of Citizens' Rights" says that the patient has the right to get acquainted with information about the state of his health and receive documents (copies) and extracts from them.
It turns out that doctors cannot issue a card to a patient so that he takes it home and disposes of it as he pleases. But they also do not have the right to refuse a person to get acquainted with a document.
So, in Magadan, a woman wanted to get a card from a dental clinic, but the organization refused to issue a card, so the patient went to court. The court said that the law does not stipulate the obligation of medical institutions to issue original medical documents to citizens, copies will be enough. And the lawsuit was denied.
If the medical institution refuses to provide copies of documents, including all pages of the medical record, this will be a violation of the law. But he has the right not to issue the card itself.
At the same time, in practice, sometimes polyclinics issue medical cards without unnecessary delay - upon application addressed to the head physician, in which the patient undertakes to return the document to the medical facility within a certain period.
Therefore, the first thing I recommend is to clarify with the registry whether this can be done.
Extract is a medical document according to the state-approved form 027/U. It reflects the state of a person's health: the date of the visit to the doctor, his complaints, test results, diagnosis or diagnoses. In different medical institutions, statements may look different: there is a document template that was approved by the Ministry of Health of the USSR, and each clinic adapts it for itself.
The patient can order a statement for a different period: for example, for the last five years or one month if he needs to cover a specific disease.
A copy of the medical record is simply a photocopy of a description of a certain period of the patient's illness, for example, when he was injured and was observed in a medical facility.
In some cases, the patient needs just certified copies, that is, on each page of the document there must be a stamp "Copy is correct" and the signature of a medical worker.
By law, the patient has the right to order copies of the card or an extract from it from the medical institution. The clinic will certify the document only at the request of the judicial and investigative authorities or insurance companies, although sometimes organizations meet patients halfway. For example, I was made a certified copy of the trauma patient's outpatient card at my own written request. The document was needed for compensation from the insurance company.
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Such a certified copy of the medical record was given to me when I requested information for the insurance companyAnastasia Kornilova
lawyer, expert T—F
Author profile
In this case, all the documents that the plaintiff patient has on hand are needed: an extract from the medical record, treatment prescription, research results, sick leave.
In general, everything that can confirm his requirements. If some documents are not enough, the court will request them itself. And, most likely, he will additionally appoint an examination. You can attach simple copies - the court itself can request certified ones.
There are five ways to do this:
And for earlier information, you still have to contact a medical organization. Order of the Ministry of Health of the Russian Federation "On the procedure and terms for the provision of medical documents"
Here is what you need to indicate in the application:
Patient's personal information: full name, passport details, registration or place of residence.
Order of the Ministry of Health of the Russian Federation "On the procedure and terms for the provision of medical documents"
Application template to the registry
If the application is written by the patient's legal representative, he additionally indicates his data in the document.
How long will you have to wait. The maximum period is 30 calendar days after the request is registered with the medical institution. But organizations tend to make documents faster, about two weeks after the request.
Art. 12 of the law dated 02.05.2006 No. 59-FZ "Terms for consideration of a written appeal from citizens"
days. After that, he has five days to familiarize himself. If a person simply comes to the clinic and asks for his card in order to get acquainted with it here and now, he may be refused.
Order of the Ministry of Health of the Russian Federation dated November 12, 2021 No. 1050n "Procedure for familiarizing the patient with medical documentation"
How to order information in person at the clinic.
Come with your passport to the registry office and write an application. As a rule, clinics have ready-made forms, you only need to enter your data into the document and sign it. There is no single sample for the application; the patient writes it in free form.
Starting March 1, 2022, a patient's loved ones have the right to request their medical information - even after their death.
Close people are spouse, children, parents, grandparents, grandchildren, siblings and other persons.
So what? 03/02/22
Starting March 1, relatives can access the patient's medical data
In order to obtain the patient's medical information, a loved one must send a written request to a medical institution. In it, indicate the same information that would be needed to request your own data. Only here you need to add a document confirming your relationship, for example, a marriage certificate.
You can also write an application and leave it in a medical organization in person, send it by mail with acknowledgment of receipt. Or send it online to the email address of the medical facility.
If a person does not want his relatives to know about his illnesses, he can forbid giving such information. You just need to write a statement to the head physician, in which you completely or partially prohibit access to personal information.
Partially in this case it means that a person, for example, forbids opening his data not to all close people, but only to his brother and spouse.
Outpatient, dental and orthodontic cards are usually kept in the registry. But if the patient does not apply to the organization for five years, the document is taken to the archive. Private clinics have their own internal rules: a patient's card can be archived if he does not come for a year.
Regardless of the form of ownership of the medical institution, the document is stored in the archive for a strictly allotted time. The terms for storing some documents in the archive are clearly stated in the letter of the Ministry of Health "On the terms of medical documentation".
| Document | How many years is stored |
|---|---|
| Outpatient medical record | 25 |
| Child development history | 25 |
| Dental card | 25 |
| Orthodontic card | 25 |
| Child's medical record | 10 |
| Individual pregnancy card | 5 |
| Postpartum individual card | 5 |
Document
How many years are
Major patient
25
Child development
25
Child's medical card
10
Pregnancy card
5
Postpartum card
5
Until that moment, the patient can order an extract and a copy of the card, read the original and take photos.
The procedure for accessing the archive is the same as when ordering documents from the current file cabinet. In the polyclinic, an application for the issuance of data can be written directly at the registry.
But if you ordered a card from the archive, this does not mean that you will receive it in its original form. Force majeure events occur, such as a fire or flood in a vault, due to which documents in paper form are not saved. So, at the end of March 2022, I needed my outpatient card for a paid department at the city hospital, where I applied for a medical service in 2014.
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I needed the original map to photograph each page. To do this, I called the registry office and asked about the document. The employee told me that the card was archived and they could not issue it. I didn’t believe a word and called the head physician of the hospital. There I was given the phone number of the general department of the medical institution, which I need to contact in order to get my card details from the archive.
I wrote a statement in which I asked the hospital staff to get my card from the archive. About a week and a half later, they called me back from the hospital and said that a flood had occurred in the archive, so all the documents that were there were hopelessly damaged.
If there was a fire or flood in the storage, the medical organization will make you an extract from its electronic database, but only if you need information not earlier than 2012. The fact is that since 2012, medical institutions have been gradually switching to an electronic database of patients. Moreover, in different regions and medical institutions, these terms are different. In some clinics, computer technologies have been used only since 2017, and before that they kept paper records.
Information from the electronic database partially duplicates the paper version: there are dates, purpose of visits, results of ultrasound, MRI.
If nothing is saved in the paper archive, the data will be given to the patient from this electronic database. Such an extract from the hospital database was also given to me when I requested documents for the period from 2014 to 2021. If I needed data, for example, for 2011, I would have received a negative answer - there would simply be no information in the database.
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The statement that they gave me in the hospital contained concise information. In any case, this is better than a simple reply from the hospital staff about the flood in the archive.
In my case, I needed the information for an article in Tinkoff Magazine, so the scarcity of data from the electronic database did not particularly affect anything. Nevertheless, such an extract confirms the very fact of seeking medical help due to a certain health problem.
Sometimes, even from brief information, one can reliably understand that doctors somewhere made a mistake in the process of making a diagnosis or in the course of treatment. Then the extract can become evidence in a medical malpractice case.
It happens that polyclinics do not allow patients to see outpatient cards, photograph data or write them out. The main reason that medical workers refer to in their refusals is that there are no empty seats in the clinic so that people can study their documents, and there are no employees who will make sure that patients do not tear out the sheets from the card and do not enter anything there.
Anastasia Kornilova
lawyer, expert T—F
Author profile
You must contact Roszdravnadzor.
The status of a medical institution does not matter - you can complain about both a public and a private clinic. According to the regulations, the organization will consider the appeal for 30 calendar days. If more time is needed, she will write an interim letter to the patient. But most often, departments meet this deadline.
If a violation is found in the clinic's actions, it will be fined and an order may be issued to eliminate the violation, in particular, to issue documents. If no violations are found, they will give a negative answer. The actions of the clinic can be appealed in court.
How to file a complaint with Roszdravnadzor and organize an inspection. This can be done online on the official website of the organization.
Form for filing applications with Roszdravnadzor for individuals
You will need to log in to the ESIA and enter personal data: full name, date of birth, place of residence, phone number, email address. And also state the essence of the complaint, for example: "02/01/2021, I submitted an application or request for a copy of the outpatient card, but my request was ignored.
"
What is the penalty for the clinic. If the medical institution did not provide the patient or his legal representative upon request with medical documents, then this is a violation of Article 5.39 of the Code of Administrative Offenses of the Russian Federation - "Refusal to provide information." For this, a fine from 5,000 to 10,000 RUR is provided. Responsibility lies with the official - the head physician of the medical institution.
Art. 5.39 of the Code of Administrative Offenses of the Russian Federation
Unfortunately, in real life, medical institutions establish their own rules, thereby violating the legal rights of the patient. And complaints to Roszdravnadzor do not always help, so disputes reach the Supreme Court.
E-justice
For example, an interesting incident happened in Magadan in 2020. The patient did an MRI at the clinic under VMI insurance, and later requested the results of the study in electronic form.
Simply put, he asked the employees of the organization to send the information to him on a flash drive.
But the medical institution provided only the film, and refused electronic information and offered to pay for an additional service. Also, representatives of the clinic feared that the patient's personal flash drive would damage their expensive equipment.
As a result, the patient filed a complaint with Rospotrebnadzor, and after the check, the latter issued an order to the clinic: to give the patient the information he requested. But the medical organization refused to do this, sued the decision of Rospotrebnadzor and demanded that the order be declared invalid. The dispute reached the Supreme Court and was decided not in favor of the clinic, that is, the patient was still given the MRI results in electronic form.
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What does the law say about this? Do we have the right to receive complete information about our health? Sergey Shkitin, expert of the All-Russian Union of Insurers, answered "RG-Nedelya".
Does the patient have the right to learn about the prescribed tests and studies, as well as their results recorded in the medical record?
Sergey Shkitin: Of course he does.
Every citizen has the right to receive in a form accessible to him information available in a medical organization about his state of health, including information about the results of an examination, the presence of a disease, an established diagnosis and a prognosis for its development. He is obliged to inform him about the methods of treatment, the risks associated with them, the possible types of medical intervention, its consequences, as well as the results of the provision of medical care.
And these are not just words. All this is recorded in the Federal Law "On the Fundamentals of Protecting the Health of Citizens in the Russian Federation" (No. 323-FZ of November 21, 2011), in the 22nd article.
How can you get this information: ask, for example, to make an extract, demand a medical card and take pictures of the necessary pages?
Sergey Shkitin: The patient or his legal representative has the right to directly get acquainted with the medical documentation reflecting his state of health and receive advice from other specialists on the basis of such documentation.
To do this, you need to make a request. Moreover, you can send it to the medical organization in electronic form. Then medical documents reflecting the patient's health status (their copies) and extracts from them can also be provided in the form of electronic documents.
Information about the health of children under 18 is provided to their parents or legal representatives. The same procedure - providing information to legal representatives - also applies to citizens recognized as incompetent.
Who specifically has to provide information?
Sergey Shkitin: Attending physician. He answers the request and gives exhaustive answers to all questions of interest to the patient or his legal representative. This applies to the diagnosis of diseases, and the established diagnosis, and the treatment, and further recommendations.
But what if a verbal conversation is not enough, if, for example, the patient wants to get a medical report in his hands in order to consult in another medical institution?
Sergey Shkitin: There is an order of the Russian Ministry of Health dated June 29, 2016 No.
425n, which approved the procedure for familiarizing a patient or his legal representative with medical documentation reflecting the patient's health status.
This document is absolutely specific: the basis for familiarization with medical records is a written request from the patient or his legal representative. Such a request is registered, and within 30 days the patient is required to provide the documents that he requests.
The attending physician must answer the patient's request
Who to contact if the doctor or receptionist refuses?
Sergey Shkitin: You can contact both the official of the medical organization (for example, the head doctor, his deputy), and the medical insurance organization that issued him the compulsory medical insurance policy (insurance representative). An insurance representative will help resolve this issue.
If something is not clear to the patient with the indicators, tests, etc.
, is the attending doctor obliged to explain what and how (many, not having achieved an explanation, climb into the Internet with all the consequences)?
Sergey Shkitin: Information about the state of health is provided to the patient personally by the attending physician or other medical professionals who performed his examination and treatment. This is also recorded in Article 22 of Law No. 323-FZ.
By the way, the attending physician not only organizes the examination and treatment of the patient, but also provides information about the state of his health. He is also obliged, at the request of the patient or his legal representative, to invite specialist doctors for consultations, if necessary, convene a council. At the same time, the recommendations of consultants are carried out only in agreement with the attending physician, with the exception of cases of emergency medical care (Article 70 of Law No. 323-FZ).
If the attending physician could not answer all the questions, the patient still has doubts about the quality of the medical care received, he has the right to file a complaint with the medical insurance organization.
