| Course | HI135 Legal Aspects of Health Information |
|---|---|
| Unit | Unit 9 |
| Paper type | Disclosure log entry |
| Length | About 630 words, 5 pages double-spaced |
| Format | APA 7 student paper |
| School | Purdue University Global |
| Program | BS in Health Information Management |
| Updated | October 2026 |
Free sample paper for HI135 Unit 9
Every Field Filled for a Question Asked Years Later: A Unit 9 Disclosure Log Entry Recording a Hospital Laboratory's Release of Culture Results to a County Health Department, With the Reason Each Field Is There
[Student Name]
Purdue University Global
HI135: Legal Aspects of Health Information
Unit 9 Disclosure Log Entry
[Instructor Name]
[Date]
The patient, the hospital and the investigation are composite; the disclosure rules, the accounting requirement and the sources cited are real.
The Entry
1. Date of disclosure: August 12.
2. Patient: medical record number 00418377, D. P.
3. Recipient: Communicable Disease Unit, county health department, with its street address.
4. Description of information disclosed: stool culture result positive for Shiga toxin-producing E. coli O157, collected August 9; specimen and isolate tracking numbers; the completed state reportable disease form, which carries her identifiers, contact details and the date her symptoms began.
5. Purpose: public health investigation of a reportable disease.
6. Authority: state reportable disease law and the federal permission for disclosures to public health authorities.
7. Request reference: health department letter of August 11 requesting the result and form, scanned to the log.
8. Method: secure electronic transmission through the state reporting portal, confirmation number recorded.
9. Released by: laboratory information specialist, initials and employee number.
10. Approved by: laboratory manager, a different person from the sender.
The description field names exactly two items, which is what lets this entry answer a patient's question rather than simply prove that a log exists.
Why Each Field Reads as It Does
Description. Vague wording such as "medical records" or "lab results" would make the entry useless. If D. P. later asks what went to the health department, the answer is a culture result and a report form, not her whole chart, and the entry has to say so. Purpose and authority. Disclosures to a public health authority legally authorized to collect information for disease control are permitted without the patient's authorization (45 C.F.R. § 164.512, 2024). Naming both the state reporting law and the federal permission shows the release rested on law, not on a staff member's judgment. Request reference. When a public official requests information and represents that it is the minimum needed, the hospital may rely on that representation if reliance is reasonable (45 C.F.R. § 164.514, 2024). Scanning the request into the log preserves the basis for that reliance. Two names. The sender and approver are different people so that the entry itself shows a check took place.
Why This Entry Matters to the Patient
Unlike releases made with the patient's signed authorization, disclosures for public health must appear when a patient asks for an accounting of disclosures. Patients may request an accounting covering up to six years, and the hospital must be able to produce it (45 C.F.R. § 164.528, 2024). This entry is one line of that accounting. Its accuracy determines whether the hospital can tell D. P., truthfully and completely, where her information went.
Retention
The entry is kept for at least six years, matching the period the accounting can reach. Because the laboratory's own result is also filed in the patient's chart, the log entry is the only place that records the fact of the disclosure, the recipient and the authority together, so it cannot be purged with routine laboratory records on their two-year cycle. The log is stored in the release of information system, not the laboratory system, for that reason.
What a Weak Entry Would Look Like
"8/12, D. P., health department, lab results, public health, sent." Every field is technically present. None of them could answer a question. An auditor could not tell what left, under what authority or who checked it, and the patient could not learn anything she did not already know.
References
45 C.F.R. § 164.512 (2024). https://www.ecfr.gov/current/title-45/section-164.512
45 C.F.R. § 164.514 (2024). https://www.ecfr.gov/current/title-45/section-164.514
45 C.F.R. § 164.528 (2024). https://www.ecfr.gov/current/title-45/section-164.528
Reading the HI 135 Unit 9 instructions
Unit 9 generally asks you to create a disclosure log entry for a release and explain it. Fill every field your facility's log requires, typically date, patient identifier, recipient and address, description of what was disclosed, purpose, authority, request reference, method, and who released and approved it. Write the description specifically enough that a patient reading an accounting would recognize what left. State the legal basis for the disclosure. Then explain the fields that required judgment. Note whether the disclosure must appear in an accounting of disclosures and how long the entry is kept. Use composite names and record numbers. A table row followed by a short rationale is the usual format.
How the HI 135 Unit 9 example is put together
The note presents ten numbered fields, from the date through the approver, followed by a highlighted line on the description field. A rationale section explains the description, the purpose and authority, the scanned request and the two names. A section explains why this disclosure belongs in the patient's accounting and how far back an accounting can reach. A retention section explains why the entry outlives the laboratory's two-year records. A closing section shows a technically complete but useless entry for contrast. Margin notes address the future reader, the fields chosen for explanation and the contrast. The rationale is short because most fields explain themselves; it spends its words on the four that do not.
HI135 Unit 9 rubric: what earns full points
Disclosure log entries are usually graded on completeness and precision. Points go to filling every required field and writing the description specifically. Credit rises for a correct legal basis and for noting whether the disclosure falls within the accounting a patient can request. Instructors value separation of duties, shown by a separate approver, and attention to retention. A rationale that explains judgment calls rather than every field shows understanding. Clean presentation and accurate citations complete the rubric. Entries with vague descriptions, such as medical records, typically lose the most credit. Instructors also reward entries that would support an accounting request without anyone needing to reconstruct the event.
HI135 Unit 9 help: mistakes that cost points
The most common shortfall is a vague description that would not tell a patient anything. Name exactly what left. Another is omitting the authority, which leaves the release looking like a staff decision. Remember that public health disclosures belong in an accounting, unlike disclosures made under authorization. Do not use a real patient's name, even from your workplace. Keep the rationale focused on fields that required thought. If your prompt describes a different release, send it and we will write the entry and its rationale. Write the purpose as the legal reason, not as a description of the request. And keep the request letter itself with the entry, scanned or referenced, so the basis for relying on it survives staff turnover.
Get an HI135 Unit 9 example written to your instructions
Give us the release scenario from your Unit 9 assignment, along with any log template your instructor provided and the rubric. The custom entry and its rationale are written to those fields and returned within 24-48h. Your first sample is on us, and if the template differs from ours, the template wins. The paper above is an original model document written by our desk, not a submitted student paper and not an official Purdue University Global document.
More HI135 papers and BS in Health Information Management samples
- HI135 Unit 1: Discussion Board Post
- HI135 Unit 2: Authorization Review
- HI135 Unit 3: Release of Information Case
- HI135 Unit 4: Privacy Notice Comparison
- HI135 Unit 5: Retention Schedule
- HI135 Unit 6: Seminar Reflection
- HI135 Unit 7: Amendment Response Letter
- HI135 Unit 8: Breach Notification Memo
- HI135 Unit 10: Privacy Policy Draft
HI135 Unit 9 questions, answered
Which releases belong in a disclosure log?
That depends on whether the question is the department's own tracking or the patient's right to an accounting. Many departments log every release; the accounting a patient can request covers a narrower set, leaving out routine treatment, payment and operations disclosures and releases made under the patient's own authorization, among others. The example says which category its release falls into and why.
How much detail goes in the description field?
Enough that a patient reading the accounting would recognize what left. The finished entry names the test results and the report form and gives the encounter date they came from. A description that stops at lab work or chart copies meets the letter of a template field and fails its purpose, and graders in this course tend to notice the difference.
Should the entry include the patient's full name?
In a real log, the patient is identified the way the facility's system requires. In a class assignment, the example uses a composite name and a made-up record number, and yours should too, even if the scenario borrows from work. Real identifiers stay out of coursework entirely, whatever your workplace access happens to allow.
Where can I find a free HI135 Unit 9 sample paper?
The complete Unit 9 log entry for the public health release, with the field-by-field rationale, is on this page.
Do public health disclosures appear in a patient's accounting of disclosures?
Yes. Disclosures to public health authorities are not among the exceptions, so they must be listed when a patient requests an accounting.