You may remember the Virginia Tech tragedy more than two years ago, when a student at the university, Seung-Hui Cho, opened fire one day on his classmates, killing 32 people and …
Before posting, please read our blog moderation guidelines. The comments below begin with the oldest comments first. Click on the last comments page to jump to the most recent comments.
Before posting, please read our blog moderation guidelines.
Post a Comment:
Copyright © 1992-2012 Psych Central. All rights reserved.
Site last updated: 25 May 2012
|
Dr. Miller had access to the Cook Counseling services upto 2008. His story is fishy, he could have taken them after the Vir. Tech Shooting. It would also be helpful for the Governor of Virginia to authorize the release of Cho’s Toxicology Report.
Considering the information contained within medical records are the property of the client/patient, I cannot think of ANY reason why any person should be bringing client charts home. Its not theirs to take to a private residence and I hardly think most clients/patients would say its okay for any doctor to take the chart out of the office. If you have not finished with a chart, leave it for tomorrow or stay late to work on it.
Hopefully this incident will lead to some new federal laws prohibiting individuals from taking client/patient charts home. If so, it would be unfortunate that the government would have to come up with a law that would direct doctors on how to act reasonably and with common sense – something they should be doing on their own.
While HIPAA does not expressly forbid individuals from taking charts home, it does make note that charts should be kept secured at all times, no one other than the provider have access to it, and there is plan of action in case the chart needs to be accessed in the event of an emergency.
While its possible to secure the chart in a private home, and limit access to it, in the case of an emergency, other individuals would not necessarily have access to the chart (or even know where the chart is). This is a violation of the HIPAA standards.
Taking charts out of the office to places such as a private residence places a high risk to the integrity, confidentiality, and access to the PHI.
This is not a reasonable standard of care practice and should not be passed over as being “okay”
if it’s so fishy, why wouldn’t he destroy the records instead of turning them over?
The records could have been destroyed,.. and replaced. like I said, its fishy since Dr. Miller “was not” Cho’s treating therapist. I agree with Dr. Wayne, and the attorneys, these records should never have left the office, and if Dr. Miller violated HIPPA, he should be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law!!!
Lots of questions here: In how many places in this therapist’s house or garage does he store documents? How many documents does he store? Where exactly did he find the documents? How in the world was he unable to find them in response to investigation by police but able to find them when facing the prospect of testifying under oath? If I were the plaintiffs’ lawyers, I would ask for a video-taped inspection of the therapist’s home so that a jury and judge could evaluate the plausibility of his prior claim that he did not know where the records were. If I were a settling plaintiff, I would seek to rescind my settle agreement on the basis of fraudulent inducement.
I guess this is something else to ask when seeking a therapist. Will you take my medical record to your house? If so, I would like to opt out.
Claire, I do not know if you were half-joking or not, but the generality of your statement is a valid one. Clients most certainly have a right to ask their therapists how they (the therapist) protect their (the clients) information. This is especially true in today’s age of electronic transmission and storage of data.
However, that also means that client’s need to educate themselves (to some extent, since the therapist should be able to explain to the client how and why they chose the method in which they store data) so that they can be better able to ask the appropriate questions.
Dr. Wayne, I agree. There are several questions that I would ask. For example, I wouldn’t talk with a mental health professional who utilized an electronic medical record.
Also, I never thought to ask about the taking my records home thing. I wish I had thought to ask, because I would have voiced my opposition to it. I don’t want my therapy records lying on a therapist’s coffee table at home. It needs to stay at the office. I work with medical records, and I don’t take the patients’ info home with me to catch up on my work. I either stay late, sometimes very late, to finish what I’m doing or it waits until the next day. It’s the respectful thing to do.
If Dr. Miller was truly devious as is being insinuated, he could have easily destroyed these records and they would have NEVER turned up. His public reputation and carrer would still be intact. He removed these files, along with his personal filed, when he left the counseling center for a diffrent campus job. The very fact that he turned in these files as soon as he discovered them, says something positive about his character.
I don’t really care if he was being devious or not. I do care that he is so sloppy with patients’ personal information that he thinks it’s okay to take it home and let it gather dust. I will be making some phone calls to find out about my past medical & mental health records. They better be where they’re supposed to be.
Ummm, its much worse/deeper than just a simple case of “oops”….
Dr. Robert C. Miller served as a “substitute Incident Commander” for the response team dispatched to deal with the aftermath of the April 16 shootings. This information is confirmed through Dr. Miller’s own resume, in which he lists the incident under the heading, “Administrative, Consultation and Leadership Experience.”….
2007 Member, Human Resources response team to April 16 shootings. Served as substitute Incident Commander 2007-present Member, ADA Executive Committee, Virginia Tech
http://www.NaturalNews.com/z026682_Chi_health_mental_health.html
The lawsuit filed by parents of two of the students who were killed had Miller reveal that he had been fired from his position as Director of Cooke Counseling Center after an external investigation was conducted. Now, a judge has cleared the way for the lawsuit to proceed after having found that Miller is not subject to immunity. It is a good thing that we may finally have a chance to discover how well he performed his fiduciary duties as the Director of Cooke Counseling Center. Taking files home, missing files, being relieved of his position …. are these symptoms of his leadership abilities?