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The Substance Abuse & Mental Health Services Administration



SAMHSA Privacy Policy

System Notice: 09-30-0047 6

SYSTEM NAME:

Patient Records on Chronic Mentally Ill Merchant Seamen Treated at Nursing Homes in Lexington, Kentucky, (1942 to the Present). HHS/SAMHSA/CMHS.

SECURITY CLASSIFICATION:

None.

SYSTEM LOCATION:

CONTRACTOR:

Commonwealth of Kentucky, Department of Mental Health/Mental Retardation
Mental Health Branch, Cabinet for Human Resources
275 E. Main Street
Frankfort, Kentucky 40621.

SUBCONTRACTOR:
Homestead Nursing Center, Inc.,
1608 Versailles Road
Lexington, Kentucky 40505.

CATEGORIES OF INDIVIDUALS COVERED BY THE SYSTEM:

Chronic mentally ill former merchant seamen originally treated at PHS Hospitals in Fort Worth, Texas, and Lexington, Kentucky, and now in nursing homes in Lexington, Kentucky (1942 to the present).

CATEGORIES OF RECORDS IN THE SYSTEM:

Administrative records, such as admission and release dates; name, address, Social Security number, and other demographic data; medical records, such as, but not limited to, psychological, medical and social evaluations as well as treatment information, any laboratory test, etc.

AUTHORITY FOR MAINTENANCE OF THE SYSTEM:

Executive Order 9079 (1942) authorizes the care and treatment of these individuals.

PURPOSE(S) OF THE SYSTEM:

The records are used to facilitate patient care, to monitor progress, and to ensure quality and continuity of care.

ROUTINE USES OF RECORDS MAINTAINED IN THE SYSTEM, INCLUDING CATEGORIES OF USERS AND THE PURPOSES OF SUCH USES:

1. In the event of litigation where the defendant is (a) the Department, a component of the Department, or any employee of the Department in his or her official capacity; (b) the United States where the Department determines that the claim, if successful, is likely to directly affect the operations of the Department or any of its components; or (c) any Department employee in his or her individual capacity where the Justice Department has agreed to represent such employee, the Department may disclose such records as it deems desirable or necessary to the Department of Justice to enable that Department to present an effective defense, provided such disclosure is compatible with the purpose for which the records were collected.

2. Disclosure may be made to the Center for Mental Health Services (CMHS) contractors and subcontractors, including nursing home staff, for the purpose of carrying out and maintaining quality care. Contractors maintain, and are also required to ensure that the subcontractors maintain, Privacy Act safeguards with respect to the records.

3. Disclosure may also be made to a congressional office from the record of an individual in response to an inquiry from the congressional office made at the request of that individual or his legally authorized representative.

4. Records may be disclosed to Federal, State, local, or other authorized organizations which provide medical care and treatment to these individuals to facilitate continuity of care by supplying information to medical care facilities/practitioners who provide treatment to individual seamen.

5. Records may be disclosed to the Department of Veterans Affairs, the Social Security Administration, or other Federal or State agencies having special benefit programs for the purpose of obtaining these benefits for these individuals.

POLICIES AND PRACTICES FOR STORING, RETRIEVING, ACCESSING, RETAINING, AND DISPOSING OF RECORDS IN THE SYSTEM:

STORAGE:

Hard copy files stored in locked file cabinets in the State office. In the nursing homes, hard copy records are maintained at nursing stations.

RETRIEVABILITY:

The records are retrieved by patient name.

SAFEGUARDS:

1. Authorized Users: Only the System Manager and designated staff, designated contractor staff and appropriate subcontractor staff at the nursing home.

2. Physical Safeguards: The State records are stored in locked file cabinets. These cabinets are in a room within a building that is locked at night after business hours. Patient records of subject individuals at the nursing homes are commingled with the records of other patients at nursing stations under the supervision of the attendant on duty.

3. Procedural Safeguards: Only the System Manager, contractor staff and appropriate nursing home staff have access to the files. Only those authorized personnel are allowed to gain access to material in the locked file cabinets.

4. Implementation Procedures: DHHS Chapter 45-13 of the General Administration Manual.

RETENTION AND DISPOSAL:

The administrative and medical records will be retained for 25 years after last treatment or after the death of a patient, and then destroyed.

SYSTEM MANAGER(S) AND ADDRESS:

Director
Division of Program Development, Special Populations and Projects
Center for Mental Health Services
Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration
1 Choke Cherry Road
Room, 6-1093
Rockville, Maryland 2085

NOTIFICATION PROCEDURE:

To determine if a record exists, write to the System Manager at the address above. An individual or his legally authorized representative may learn if a record exists about himself upon written request with notarized signature. The request should include full name or any alias used and birth date.

An individual or his legally authorized representative who requests notification of, or access to, a medical record shall, at the time the request is made, designate a family physician or other health professional (other than a family member) to whom the record will be released. The representative must verify relationship to the individual as well as his/her own identity.

RECORD ACCESS PROCEDURES:

Same as Notification Procedures. Requestors should also reasonably specify the record contents being sought. An individual or his legally authorized representative may also request an accounting of disclosures that have been made of the subject individual's records, if any.

CONTESTING RECORD PROCEDURES:

Contact the official at the address specified under Notification Procedures above and reasonably identify the record, specify the information to be contested, and state the corrective action sought with supporting information to show how the record is inaccurate, incomplete, untimely, or irrelevant.

RECORD SOURCE CATEGORIES:

Patients; legally authorized representatives; nursing home and hospital personnel.

SYSTEMS EXEMPTED FROM CERTAIN PROVISIONS OF THE ACT:

None.


6 Published in the Federal Register, Vol. 64, No. 11, Tuesday, January 19, 1999 (pages 2909-2918).

 

 


Last Update: 9/24/2008