Ownership of the medical radiograph

Abstract

Current hospital policies controlling original diagnostic radiographs do not serve the best interests of either the patients or the institutions. A survey of 200 randomly selected hospitals shows that approximately 40% of the hospitals would not release the original radiograph directly to the patient. Even more important, hospitals will destroy original radiographs without prior notification of the patient. Although statutes and case law support the institutional ownership of the x-ray film, there is a strong legal trend allowing the patient the use of the film. There are potential problems with patient control of the original radiographic image, but there is no evidence that these problems would develop if current hospital policies were changed to allow the patient physical possession of the films. Because there are economic incentives for hospitals to destroy the original radiographs, hospital policies should be liberalized to allow patients to acquire and maintain possession of their own original radiographic images.