What Is the Best Way to Remove All Personal Data from Legal Contracts?

What is the best way to remove all personal data from legal contracts, medical records, etc. without losing its formatting?

First of all, let’s address the “ownership” concept. In healthcare, no one in particular “owns” any patient health information. Not one single person, or group “owns” another individual’s personal health information/records. The patient themselves do not “own” their own medical records or information. Being a Healthcare Informatics major, I have learned this concept of ownership is more about control than anything else. This question can be answered in many ways, based off the extra information provided. As of 2016, Personal Health Records (PHR’s) are becoming an increasingly popular trend. A Personal Health Record is any and all data/information (health related & medical of course), that the patient, themselves, maintains. PHR’s are not generally accepted by a lot of healthcare facilities due to the increase of concentration upon EHR’s (Electronic Health Records). Electronic Health Records are simply just electronic formatted health records that reside in an “EHR Cloud”… Each doctor you visit has an electronic, portable chart and EHR on file for very patient. Paper files and paper trails (as in health records) are no longer allowed. You will of course have paper documents to still fill out at new visits, however, appointments, medications, procedures, doctor notes, etc, are all maintained electronically now. With that being said, the best thing for you to do is call your previous medical providers, and ask for your information to be transferred or faxed to the new doctor you are trying to visit. If your previous medical providers do not have any records on file, then chances are, your records have been destroyed. However, instead of assuming this, ask them to please explain their medical record retention policy. The medical record retention policy provides a specified minimum amount of time in which the provider must retain each individual’s medical/health information. This retention rate varies depending on certain circumstances. Paper records are legally required to be made and transferred into electronic documents. Regardless, your previous medical doctors should have your medical records still on file. It does not matter whether t have “changed systems” or no longer have “paper records/charts”; all healthcare facilities and organizations have been required to transfer paper data into electronic format. Back to the PHR… Personal Health Record is something you can maintain and keep up with yourself. With a variety of eHealth tools available online today, you can create your very own personal health record. You can also manage your health information on paper to. the choice is yours. To do this accurately, retrieving your past health records from your past providers is highly recommended. So either way, you will have to contact your previous providers and ask for your medical records to be released to you. This whole article I have mentioned calling these providers, but if you would like fast results, and have the time to run these errands, then visiting your previous medical providers would be more beneficial for time. Most healthcare facilities require you to sign a paper stating you are releasing your medical records to yourself, or having them transferred to another provider. If you just want to have full custody and maintenance over your Personal Health Information (PHI), then you can start your Personal Health Record (PHR) accurately once you retrieve your old records. PHR’s most definitely can be saved 100% on a cloud, because you are creating them. You can chose to create your PHR on paper, if you wanted. PHR’s can also be tethered/connected to the network of your current provider through a “Patient Portal”. The only difference between your own PHR and a PHR that is connected to a patient portal, is that the connected PHR is also viewed and accessed by the provider. Electronic Health Records (EHR’s) are stored on a cloud within the providers network. So to answer your question regarding “Ownership” of data, the physician technically “owns” the medical data/information in EHR’s at his/her facility, which we already established, owns=controls. The overall concept of data ownership is becoming more and more complex, due to PHR’s and EHR’s, and sharing data between databases and physicians. PHR’s are a great way for you, as an individual, to maintain, monitor, and keep track of your personal health data, but there are also drawbacks to this being the only type of health record you have. Concerns such as. data accuracy, security, as well as data privacy, make PHR “risky” for doctors to accept. Personal Health Information (PHI) is yours. You control/own your PHI in your Personal Health Record (PHR), however the overall ownership of your health information at healthcare facilities is split between many people, who are each maintaining different roles… all with the number one intent of keeping your personal information safe and secure, as well as keeping you a satisfied, patient who receives equal care as others. So in a nutshell. PHR (Personal Health Record. just you. standalone) = Personal Health Record; you maintain and access the data/information; you can start a standalone PHR with copies of medical records your previous providers have released to you, or you can start a PHR with just what you know recently (the more accurate PHR with health records information in it, will be more beneficial to you); only you can access this; can be done on paper, or on computer using different eHealth tools PHR (connected. tethered) = connected to provider’s patient portal; you have access and maintain it; providers also have access; you can still control your data EHR (Electronic Health Record) = complete digital patient history from all healthcare providers, regardless the specialty; clinicians access and maintain information; clinicians monitor records I hope this helps you! Good luck with you medical records and becoming a new patient for a doctor!