Re: Conundrum

[brackett@bright.net]

Is the person's employer, for whom I assume they're doing this work, an
"outside organization?"  While I agree that dose records are confidential
and should be treated as medical records, if you have subcontractors on
your site their employer is entitled (and most likely, required) to know
what doses they are receiving because they are ultimately responsible.  It
is particularly important if the person has the potential for occupational
exposure at multiple sites.

At 01:53 PM 4/25/2000 -0500, you wrote:
>With the exception of required NRC (or other regulator) reports, an
employee's
>dose history files should not be released to an outside organization
without >the employee's consent.  As a general rule, we treat dosimetry
records as >medical records.
>
>> We recently started allowing non-Lockheed Martin employees to use a large
>> Co-60 irradiator we own. These individuals are required to attend our
>> radiation safety training, be approved by our Radiation Safety Committee as
>> Authorized Users, and are issued LM dosimetry. Their dosimeter results come
>> to me mixed in with LM employee's dosimetry results. For privacy purposes,
>> if an LM employee wants to know their exposure history I require a written
>> request over the individual's signature. Now I have received a request from
>> the Human Resources department of the employer of these non-LM employees
for
>> a copy of their dosimetry records "for their files."
>>
>> My question is, do I still require a request from the employee, or do I
send
>> the information to the HR department? How do y'all handle this?
>>

******************************
  Elizabeth M. Brackett, CHP 
     Sr. Health Physicist     
     MJW Corporation, Inc.       
       (330) 644-3757        
  mailto:brackett@bright.net 
******************************
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