MENTAL HEALTH and SUBSTANCE USE RECORDS REQUIRE SPECIAL HANDLING
Treatment Records Should Come From The Provider, Not Through The Pilot
Safety assessments consider the validity of records through a chain of custody procedure. If the file comes through an non-medical intermediary, the file hypothetically could altered and this limits its usefulness.
Some medical records systems allow the client to print medical records at home. Not only would this break the chain of custody, most states do not allow a client to access mental health records without approval from the clinic.
Legal Records can come directly from the pilot.
Where Does The Clinic Send Records?
I receive all mail, even for Las Vegas clients, in Denver at:
Aviation Psychiatry, LLC
Gregory L. Kirk, MD
2036 East 17th Avenue
Denver, Colorado, 80206
Emailed records should be to sent to
I cannot receive records by fax
You Should Request The Entire File, Not A Type- Or Date-limited Subset
Requesting the entire records ensures that no critical component of the safety assessment has been overlooked or ignored.
Please read the important paragraph about HIPAA and therapy records:
HIPAA rules give special protections to psychotherapy records. Among the protections is that a therapist can refuse to release a psychotherapy file, without giving you a reason, unless a valid court order compels a release. To address a few common concerns you or your therapist might have, please know that:
- The FAA advisory says that the psychiatrist must review treatment notes (not summaries) from your counseling provider.
- A summary of treatment, whether by a letter or phone call, most of the time fails to meet the “sufficient detail” standard as described in the FAA’s specification sheet.
- A therapist’s summary letter, which by definition as a summary of a record, highlights some content and excludes other information, unwittingly places the therapist as a decision maker in a public safety assessment.
- By contrast, releasing the file without restrictions keeps the responsibility for aeromedical safety assessments focused on the aviation psychiatrist.
- The records have the same HIPAA psychotherapy protections when held in this office as when kept by the originator. The file can be released only with your written consent or a court order. If your therapist asks that I not release the file to you to preserve the therapeutic alliance between you and your therapist, I have an ethical obligation to honor that request and would not release the file to you without a court order.
- I also have an ethical obligation to de-identify my report so that the assessment does not reveal protected health information (PHI) of others. For example, I am not allowed to quote something from the psychotherapy record that inadvertently identifies any other person, such as a spouse, child, or companion.