A Comparative Study on regarding Rate of the Privacy Principles in legal Issues by WHO Manual at Teaching Hospitals of Iran, Tehran and Shahid Beheshti Medical Sciences Universities; 2007

In many countries, the medical records are important legal documents, essential not only for the present and future care for patients but also as legal documents to protect the patients and the hospitals. Medical record is a confidential document and always the patient's right to privacy must be regarded. This is a descriptive - cross sectional study. Study sample were 34 of teaching hospitals affiliated with Iran (9 hospitals), Tehran(16 hospitals), Shahid Beheshti (10 hospitals) Universities of Medical Sciences. The data was collected thorough a check list, presented by descriptive statistics on SPSS software. Regarding ratios of privacy and the release of patient information, in Iran, Tehran and Shaheed Beheshti Medical Sciences Universities were 61%,60% and 58 %, for request for the release of information, in 58%,56%,56%; for General Medico-Legal Principles 63%,49%,36%;and for Procedure for the Release of Medical Information in Legal Case were 72/59%, 73% and 81%; for Preparing a Medical Record for Court 52%, 50% and 53%respectively. Considering the importance information of medical record privacy, and due to extended application of medical records for authentication in legal cases, addressing on privacy principles is needed. Also majority of hospitals have dramatic differences with World Health Organization standards. Thus, we suggest more attention in privacy and release of patient information in legal cases and act for promotion policies regarding them.