The U.S. Legal system

You are the health information manager at General Hospital. Your in-house counsel has been contacted by an attorney for a former patient of the hospital whose inpatient hospitalization resulted in some harm to the patient. That harm was documented in an incident report prepared by hospital staff. Internal legal review of the incident report indicates that the harm described by the patient’s attorney is consistent with the harm described in the incident report. Based on the conversations between General Hospital counsel and the patient’s attorney, the counsel believes a lawsuit is imminent.

• First, discuss which source(s) of law might govern this scenario and give an example of one source of law that would be applicable.
• Secondly, discuss which part of the legal process of a lawsuit you would be involved with as the health information manager.
• Lastly, what content can and/or cannot be released to the patient’s attorney and what legislation may govern this process and content release?