Home Forums Discussions General Discussion Removing erroneous chart note

So, I know that everyone seeing the subject line has instantly rolled their eyes and said "Dummy. He knows it is not possible nor legal to do anything to a chart note once it has been signed off; all you can do is offer an amendment". However, we also all know the problem; sending out that chart also sends protected health information on another patient.

I spent some time with a pair of new MD's from the University of Washington program, however. In their system, it IS possible to delete a note, or at least so mark it that it does not appear in the chart of a wrong patient. It is not a totally simple process, but it is possible. So, there is NOT some cast in stone law that prevents doing so.

That feature would have come in handy for me today

Honestly, I was more curious to see if there was a newly found/developed way to do it.

And is it really illegal to edit (in anyway) a chart note once it has been signed off? Back in the paper days, if you put a note in the wrong chart, you wouldn't slap on an addendum explaining the mix-up; you'd just move the note. Hm. But you've already mentioned those other docs that can go through that process to do a note migration. So I suppose such actions have been sanctioned as legal, as long as the change is properly documented.