DEMAND FOR ACCESS TO MEDICAL RECORDS

This case involves a situation in which a minor teenaged girl has been determined by physician examination at a hospital to be pregnant. The girl disclosed to the physician that the pregnancy resulted from sexual molestation by her step-father, and the girl expressed a desire to withhold the information from her mother. Her mother (who also is a mid-level administrator at the hospital), however, demands access to the girl's original medical records and states further that her religious convictions require that she alter the girl's medical records to eliminate references about the step-father. The case requires answers to the following three questions:

What is the appropriate response to the mother's request for access to the girl's original medical records with an expressed intention to alter the records?

How should the hospital resolve the problem of the mother's request for access to the girl's original medical records?

What action should the hospital implement to preclude a recurrence of similar problems?

Three sources were provided to be used as references in analyz