Breach of Confidentiality? - Page 5

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  1. May 4, '11 by
    I'm a nursing student who works in a health care office on campus. I see people I know all the time in the waiting room, make them appointments, etc. If they're there in person, I always say hi but treat them like a normal patient. Sometimes they'll come up and talk to me at my desk or ask how my day is going, or on the phone they will be like "oh hey! it's _______, can you get me an appointment?"
    But that's where it stops. I NEVER acknowledge that I saw someone in the office outside the office unless they say something to me about it and start the conversation themselves.
    I think it would be fine to stop in the room, if they seemed like they wanted to talk to you when they said hello in the hallway. I think it's a thing of what you think is right for the situation.
  2. May 4, '11 by
    Quote from belgarion
    Run into this at least once or twice a week. I always say hi, hows it going, hows the family, etc. I try to remain professional but I will be totally dipped if I am going to ignore a friend or relative because some arrogant administrator has no idea of what HIPAA really says.

    On the other hand we once ran into one of the nurses from the dialysis clinic where my wife is a patient. I believe it was at Wally World. We tried to say hello but she abruptly turned around and walked off. At the clinic a couple of days later she apologized and said the company policy was that if an employee runs into a patient in public they are to walk away without acknowledging that patient. She said if it was in a very small area like a convienence store they were supposed to leave the store immediately, even if they have to leave their purchases on the counter.

    It's amazing how such a simple little law that was designed to simply protect patients from the unauthorized release of information has been twisted around into a thousand headed, out of control monster just because too many people try to read too much into it.
    Well said. As someone who has taken an ungodly number of classes on HIPAA, I'm often horrified by the way some people seem to misconstrue its tenets.
    tewdles and BabyLady like this.