In these circumstances, they may begin to question their clinical judgment, struggle with what type of response they should make, and, not infrequently, begin to worry about being pulled into a litigious situation with personal and professional repercussions.
Requests generally occur in one of four forms and each type requires a different response.
The relative informality of the form can, however, motivate clinicians to reproduce the entire record and send it as a matter of course to a person or the requesting agency. It is recommended that a more discerning response be developed. First, practitioners must determine whether the release of information form contains sufficient information in order to accurately determine the identity of the patient and specific purpose of the request and whether the release of information form is valid. Optimally, after a clinician has determined that the signed release of information has been appropriately filled out, and signed by the patient, who understands its purpose, time should be taken to summarize the clinical services for the individual which is then sent to the requesting party. A summary allows the practitioner to aptly condense their perceptions of the relevant aspects of the clinical contacts for the person or organization receiving the summary.