Iowa Code 229.25 – Medical records to be confidential — exceptions
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1. a. The records maintained by a hospital or other facility relating to the examination, custody, care and treatment of any person in that hospital or facility pursuant to this chapter shall be confidential, except that the chief medical officer shall release appropriate information under any of the following circumstances:
(1) The information is requested by a licensed physician or mental health professional, attorney, or advocate who provides the chief medical officer with a written waiver signed by the person about whom the information is sought.
(2) The information is sought by a court order.
(3) The person who is hospitalized or that person’s guardian, if the person is a minor or is not legally competent to do so, signs an informed consent to release information. Each signed consent shall designate specifically the person or agency to whom the information is to be sent, and the information may be sent only to that person or agency.
b. Such records may be released by the chief medical officer when requested for the purpose of research into the causes, incidence, nature and treatment of mental illness, however information shall not be provided in a way that discloses patients’ names or which otherwise discloses any patient‘s identity.
Terms Used In Iowa Code 229.25
- Advocate: means a mental health advocate. See Iowa Code 229.1
- Chief medical officer: means the medical director in charge of a public or private hospital, or that individual's physician-designee. See Iowa Code 229.1
- Court: shall mean and include any court upon which jurisdiction has been conferred to determine the liability of persons for the support of dependents. See Iowa Code 252A.2
- following: when used by way of reference to a chapter or other part of a statute mean the next preceding or next following chapter or other part. See Iowa Code 4.1
- Guardian: A person legally empowered and charged with the duty of taking care of and managing the property of another person who because of age, intellect, or health, is incapable of managing his (her) own affairs.
- Hospital: means either a public hospital or a private hospital. See Iowa Code 229.1
- Licensed physician: means an individual licensed under the provisions of chapter 148 to practice medicine and surgery or osteopathic medicine and surgery. See Iowa Code 229.1
- Mental health professional: means the same as defined in section 228. See Iowa Code 229.1
- Mental illness: means every type of mental disease or mental disorder, except that it does not refer to an intellectual disability as defined in section 4. See Iowa Code 229.1
- Patient: means a person who has been hospitalized or ordered hospitalized to receive treatment pursuant to section 229. See Iowa Code 229.1
- person: means individual, corporation, limited liability company, government or governmental subdivision or agency, business trust, estate, trust, partnership or association, or any other legal entity. See Iowa Code 4.1
2. When the chief medical officer deems it to be in the best interest of the patient and the patient’s next of kin to do so, the chief medical officer may release appropriate information during a consultation which the hospital or facility shall arrange with the next of kin of a voluntary or involuntary patient, if requested by the patient’s next of kin.