In house analysis of medical records and data protection are increasingly important for medical collators.  Experts and those involved in the external analysis of medical records used to work informally at home.  Confidential information was put in the post. Then it was dealt with in a non-secure environment which wasn’t inspected or checked in any way.  Experts held on to records for months before preparing their report. In some cases they kept them for years afterwards.  Often these cases simply piled up in the dining room or equivalent.  Computerised documents such as reports were saved onto a non-secure home computer. Was this data deleted at the end of the computer’s life?

 In house analysis of medical records and data protection

Information security has come into focus more in recent years and it’s a question for all COLPs, clinical negligence lawyers, their indemnity insurers and assessors to consider.  What degree of security is needed when outsourcing case analysis, whether to a medical expert or at the stage the records are paginated and indexed?   Any sensible answer to this question means the end of ‘kitchen table’ case preparation as it’s not compatible with basic information security.

At Clinco, when we receive records for ordering they are dealt with on a site which conforms to ISO 9001:2008.   We track medical records internally from receipt to despatch.  Our IT systems has security at its centre.  Our facilities are available for inspection. Please contact us is you want to take a look.  We’d be happy to show you around. We do not allow unauthorised access.

I wrote some time ago about the fact that collation of medical records is now bigger business.  Whilst we all remember the informal methods of working which may have seemed adequate at the time, the larger business model does allow for investment, improvement and better standards  – all of which benefit the client at the end of the day.

At Clinco we take the issue of security and protection of your data extremely seriously. You can read more about our policies on these here.