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, 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.
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.
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.
[C77, 79, 81, § 229.25; 82 Acts, ch 1135, § 1]
89 Acts, ch 275, §7
Referred to in § 228.6, 229.19
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