Ohio Appellate Court Rules Patient Cannot Sue For Damages For Hospital’s Failure To Produce Medical Records

Patient Cannot Sue For Damages For Hospital’s Failure To Produce Medical Records: The Court of Appeals First Appellate District of Ohio (“Ohio Appellate Court”) stated in its April 20, 2023 Opinion: “Frank argues that UCMC was negligent in failing to produce his mother’s medical records. R.C. 3701.74(C) provides in part that if a health care provider “fails to furnish a medical record as required by division (B) of this section,” a patient may bring an action to enforce the patient’s right of access to the record. While the statute pertains to a patient’s right to enforce access to medical records, it does not provide a cause of action for monetary relief … We find nothing in the statute or in case law to suggest that there is a cause of action for failure to provide medical records and we will not create such a cause of action.”

Background Facts

The plaintiff, Jahmir Christopher Frank, requested 1998 medical records from University of Cincinnati Medical Center (“UCMC”) related to his mother’s prenatal treatment from when she was pregnant with Frank. UCMC denied Frank’s request, asserting that it could not provide the documents because the request was for dates of services that exceeded the hospital’s ten-year retention period.

Frank sought his mother’s prenatal records from UCMC because he was preparing to file a medical malpractice complaint against Good Samaritan Hospital (“Good Samaritan”). Frank submitted two more written requests before filing his complaint against Good Samaritan in the Hamilton County Common Pleas. He alleged that Good Samaritan was negligent during his birth, causing him to suffer from periventricular leukomalacia. Frank also asserted spoliation of evidence after learning that his birth records had been lost or destroyed. The trial court dismissed the spoliation claim. Frank later voluntarily dismissed the remainder of the state court action.

In March 2022, Frank sued UCMC, alleging negligent failure to timely produce his mother’s medical records and negligence per se for violating its duty to timely produce medical records under R.C. 3701.34. Frank’s complaint alleged that, because his mother had received prenatal care at UCMC, he had a personal interest in his mother’s prenatal records and the records were also his. Frank asserted that the federal court had dismissed his lawsuit against Good Samaritan because of UCMC’s negligent failure to provide his mother’s medical records.

The Ohio Appellate Court ruled: “Frank requested his mother’s prenatal records from UCMC, not his birth records. In fact, any records involving his birth would have been kept by Good Samaritan, not UCMC. And Frank did not allege or produce any document showing that his mother authorized the release of the records, or that Frank was his mother’s personal representative or authorized person under R.C. 3701.74(A)(11). Frank did not fall into any of the R.C. 3701.74 categories of persons authorized to obtain a patient’s medical records that are not his own. R.C. 3701.74
imposed no duty on UCMC to provide Frank’s mother’s medical records. Therefore, Frank’s negligence-per-se claim fails.”

Source Frank v. Univ. of Cincinnati Med. Ctr., 2023-Ohio-1255.

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