The Ohio Supreme Court ruled Wednesday any type of patient data kept by a healthcare provider is part of a patient's medical record, even if it is not stored in the medical record, and it must be released or made available to patients and families, reports The Columbus Dispatch.
The ruling comes after a wrongful death lawsuit against AultmanHospital in Canton, Ohio, where a deceased patient's heart-rhythm strips were not included in a medical record and subsequently were not given to the records department. The patient's daughter had requested her father's medical records after having concerns with the circumstances surrounding his death, according to the report.
An appellate court ruled that medical records only include data purposefully placed in medical records, but the Supreme Court overturned that ruling in a 5 to 2 decision. According to the majority opinion, Ohio state law does not specify where medical records must be kept, and medical records include any data kept by a healthcare provider, reports The Columbus Dispatch.
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