[SharkLPN]

HIPAA.

If I answer the phone, and am told that you are so-and-so from X LTC, I cannot verify that you are who you state you are.

Once my patient transfers back to you, chart copies will be sent back with your resident (and care management will have spoken to your DON) and then you can follow up on QI.

For all I know, there are nasty family issues afoot with my patient, and a family member without POA is impersonating the LTC staff. When HIPAA first went into effect and was all over the news, we had a patient and their relatives try to get info out of us by any means. It was obvious they were looking to file a lawsuit, and since then, I don't give out any info to someone I haven't called. I'll be happy to call your facility back on the number I find in the phone book, but other than that? Nope.

[meownsmile]

thanks shark. You said it all. I am in the same situation and not every patient that goes to the hospital goes back to the LTC they left. Sometimes for very good reasons. So i dont give any info on the phone,, they can call the patients POAHC.

[Shamira Aizza]

Originally Posted by rn/writer

I was an EMT when the big push for HIPAA was initiated. The understanding of the regulations was so poor that there were times when we would bring a patient into the ER, leave, return a few minutes later with information we wanted to add or a bottle of pills someone had put in their pocket at the scene and forgotten to turn over, and had the desk person say, "I can't confirm or deny that Mr. X is a patient here."
Sheesh.

I agree that HIPAA was grossly misunderstood and mis-applied in it's infancy, often against the tenets of BASIC common sense.

I worked as a paramedic for several years before becoming an RN, and would occassionally transfer a patient out of the local ED to a tertiary center, and on a couple occassions the transferring RN would hand me a sealed envelope, and would freak out when I would tear the envelope open right in front of her, citing HIPAA privacy.

I couldn't believe that I would actually have to explain that I was going to care for the patient in the back of the MICU enroute to the hospital, and needed to not only be aware of all relevant details of this patient's condition, I also needed to ensure that the proper transfer paperwork was completed according to EMTALA.

Maybe she thought all I was going to do was load the patient in the back and then sit up front with my partner eating chicken sandwiches and jamming out to Tobey Keith on the way. One nurse actually said to me, "none of the other paramedics seem to have a problem with this," to which I replied, "because you intimidate them...fortunately you don't intimidate me."

HIPAA was intended to facilitate a more efficient transfer of patient data, but for several years it created more problems than it solved.

I can only imagine if that same clerk or nurse came out to the EMS charting room and asked if you had the patient's medication or an additional bit of info and you said, "I cannot confirm or deny that I transported that patient to this hospital!"

[TazziRN]

Some people take HIPAA too far. It is not a violation to verify that someone is in your unit, and the basic condition-----unless the pt or family requests otherwise.

[ChayaN]

Here's something that bothered me.

My dh once had to be transported in middle of the night to the ER c/o abdominal pain. My SIL's brother happened to be the EMT that transported him. The next morning (I stayed home with a baby) I got a call from my SIL that dh was admitted with a bowel obstruction. Her brother had come home and called HER to tell her that dh was admitted. Meanwhile I had been on the phone with the ER all morning and they told me that they could tell me nothing over the phone. What's wrong with this picture?