Discussion 4

Medical records belong to the patient and the healthcare facility in which they were created. This is why patients are allowed a copy of their medical record, but not the original document.

Please read the following article from American Health Information Management Association (AHIMA) regarding the retention and destruction of health information, http://library.ahima.org/doc?oid=300217#.XXbKHzZKiM8, and then discuss:

• What are the different types of healthcare records and where are they often stored?
  
• What is considered an active record and an inactive record?
  
• What is the difference between purging records and destroying records?
  
• When are healthcare records allowed to be destroyed and what are some of the reason’s records would be destroyed?