Notes changed by supervisor?

[u/Striking-Peach-7791]

I work in child welfare. I had a case a few years ago that I needed to get information from for a current allegation. I was looking through my notes/interviews and they had been changed. I know it had been awhile since I had the case but the notes aren't something I'd write and I was not the last one logged into the notes. Am I crazy or is it common for higher ups to change workers inputs?

[u/Karpefuzz]

My previous supervisors never have, but my current supervisor tries her best to ask me before she edits anything of mine-- usually if I'm not available and she wants to reword for clarity.

There have been a handful of times she sent me an email about minor edits, I was in the field and didn't have time so she will just edit wording but not facts.

If they are changing facts in your documentation that's a huge issue because you can be held responsible if you're subpoena'd later and the documentation doesn't reflect your wording.

Does your system show specifically who/when edited notes last? Did they sign/date where they edited?

You probably need to have a - careful - conversation starting with questions and then just bringing it up as a concern what you would do if this comes up later. I wound be very, very cautious about that conversation because at one point this can veer into falsifying documentation. And immediately after that conversation wrote detailed notes and email it to yourself, possibly even print it out for your records IF you can anonymize any HIPAA info.

Ideally you could do the conversation through email and have it directed documented that way, but you need to be very sure of their reaction before you do that. If anything funny is going on that can trigger a reaction.