CARF is influential in medical records-keeping by providing an additional form of monitoring to ensure that institutions protect patient privacy, in accordance with federal regulations. By making keeping patient privacy a requirement of accreditation, and inspecting such aspects of privacy enforcement as encryption and the use of wireless networks, CARF utilizes the data accumulated by the CMS in a positive fashion that protects patients. This is important as more and more medical records are accessible online. However, in addition to ensuring compliance with federal regulations pertaining patient and employee privacy, CARF could also rate facility medical records-keeping on other issues, such as ease of obtaining medical records for patients and the user-friendly nature of site websites for patients with legitimate reasons to access their records online. This could be important in the future for CARF given that many users of rehabilitative facilities may be elderly or homebound, and the Internet may be their...

In an additional method of monitoring compliance CARF could also keep a database of any legal cases that arose pertaining to issues of patient security at accredited and non-accredited facilities.
Works Cited

CARF. (2008). Official website available 14 Nov 2008 at http://www.carf.org/default.aspx

Johnson, Robin a. (2008). The HIPAA Security Rule: CMS' enforcement activities acquire teeth

CARF. Retrieved 14 Nov 2008 at http://www.carf.org/default.aspx http://www.carf.org/consumer.aspx?content=content/About/Partners/SecurityRule.htm

CARF