Aim
New technologies are harnessing recordings to populate medical records, offer clinical decision support and create useful summaries for patients. The benefits of allowing patients to record their healthcare consultation is supported by extensive evidence detailing improved recall, understanding, satisfaction, and other outcomes. Nonetheless, recording is not always appropriate, and concern about medico-legal issues hampers its use. Subsequently, local policies are predominantly relied on to guide practice. This scoping review aims to a) examine hospital policies that apply to audio-visual recording to provide an overarching picture of healthcare consultation recording policy in Australia, and b) assess their alignment with relevant laws.
Methods
JBI methodology for scoping reviews was adopted. The websites of Australia’s largest public hospitals were searched, and 43 hospitals contacted directly. Data from policies were extracted using Covidence software by one reviewer and checked by a second reviewer. Assessment included whether policies were publicly available, their intended audience, their scope and contents. Data were analysed using descriptive qualitative content analysis, and policies compared with law.
Results
Policies about recording were identified at 17/43 hospitals. Many contain little detail about the circumstances in which recording can/cannot occur, and provide no explanation for policy decisions. In 41% (n=7) of hospitals, patients are permitted to make recordings with consent, whereas in 29% (n=5) of hospitals, such recordings are entirely prohibited. In 59% (n=10) of hospitals, there is no guidance about staff recording patients. In only 6% (n=1) hospitals does the policy explicitly accord with legislation.
Conclusions
This review shows that Australian hospital policies about recording are largely inaccessible, contain minimal detail, and in almost all instances are more restrictive than statutory requirements. The lack of consistency between tertiary health service policies about consultation recording indicates a need for greater support of health services to encourage the lawful use of consultation recording.