2023 Laws of Puerto Rico › TITLE TWENTY-FOUR - Health and Sanitation (§§ 1 — 15010) › PART VIII - Mental Health (§§ 4001-6151 — 6184) › Chapter 201A - Mental Health Code of 2000 (§§ 6152 — 6166g) › Subchapter II - General Responsibilities of Mental Health Service Providers and General Provisions for Adults and Minors (§§ 6153 — 6153y) › § 6153k-1 - Electronic or computerized clinical records

Vis-à-vis the worldwide trends and the federal initiatives as regards to the management of healthcare information by electronic means, all mental healthcare service providers shall record the clinical records for their patients on electronic or computerized media as of January 1, 2010. Such electronic or computerized clinical records shall meet the following requirements:
(a) They shall include all the information required for clinical records on paper.
(b) The information on the electronic/computerized clinical record shall be the property of the person who receives mental healthcare services and shall be under the custody of the institutional provider and shall not be shared with third parties, except for the purpose of paying for services, or by means a written express authorization by the person who receives mental healthcare services in compliance with the provisions of law or by means of a order from the court or from a regulatory agency or a public or private agency with custody over said person.
(c) ____
(d) Said records shall be under the custody of the director of the institution or the personnel designated by him/her or under the direct custody of the mental healthcare service provider.
(e) Said records shall meet all electronic security provisions required under the HIPAA and/or any other federal or Commonwealth legislation whose requirements are more stringent than those of this chapter.
(f) The electronic or computerized clinical record to be used shall be certified by the Certification Commission for Healthcare Information Technology (CCHIT) appointed by the federal government.
(g) In order to prevent patients from being constricted as to their access to their mental health information for treatment or for other valid purpose under the law, in the event of a change in the proprietary provider of electronic/computerized information systems-mental healthcare service provider relationship and to keep the costs of the electronic or computerized mental health clinical record as low as possible, it is necessary to use, to the extent practicable, open source or open source-based solutions.
(h) The institutional or individual provider of mental healthcare services that uses electronic or computerized clinical records shall give priority to considering using electronic or computerized clinical record solutions which are free of charge and are offered and used by the federal government.
(i) The programming for electronic or computerized clinical records to be used shall separate and restrict access to mental healthcare information from access to the patient’s general healthcare information.
(j) Electronic or computerized clinical records must adopt the interoperability standards established by the federal initiative known as the National Healthcare Information Infrastructure/Network—NHII.
(k) Electronic or computerized clinical records must be [able to be integrated] into the regional healthcare information initiatives which are a part of the National Healthcare Information Infrastructure/Network—NHII, directed by the private sector.
History —Oct. 2, 2000, No. 408, added as § 2.13(A) on Aug. 6, 2008, No. 183, § 11.