Forgive me if this has already been exhausted but does this also apply to medical records?  Recently I was given my x-ray film to store on my own since the facility no longer stores them.  I had the option of doing what I wanted with them.  Seems to me a central place for all of these stored under proper conditions would be more beneficial to doctors and hospitals.

Amy Conant
Programmer Analyst
RM (in training)
Arapahoe County Colorado

-----Original Message-----
From: Records Management Program [mailto:[log in to unmask]]On
Behalf Of Yanaway, Dana E.
Sent: Tuesday, October 26, 2004 11:07 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Cost of Converting Paper Files to CDs


The question of who owns the file has been bandied about for some time.
Historically there was a consensus in the legal community that the
client file belonged to the client. That consensus seems to be shifting
now. There is an argument that lawyers were paid to provide advice. the
client files may represent what was told to the client, but the client
did not buy the paper, rather they purchased the legal opinion of the
lawyer.

Therefore the question of ownership of the paper stored in the warehouse
is not definitively decided.

Of course when it comes to lawyers, just about everything is subject to
debate. There are good arguments on both sides. I would hesitate to
categorically state where the ownership of the files resides at this
point in time though.


snip>>
Interesting thing to consider here is very few of the records being
stored
by law firms belong to the firm... the majority of them belong to the
clients.  The firm may be requested by the clients to retain the records
for some period of time, and in some cases paid directly for that, but
typically it's a part of the fees the clients pay to retain the firm.
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