If a family member calls on your pt, do you give them info?

Nurses General Nursing

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Specializes in Psych, Med/Surg, Home Health, Oncology.

Hi

I work in a large, big city Medical Center, it is a Level one trauma center.

Because of HIPAA, we can not just give out info. On admission, we talk with the pt. about this issue. If they want, they make up a code & give it to us. If the caller knows the code, we can give info, if not, then no info.

It is up to the pt. to give the code to whom ever he/she wants.

Mary Ann

Specializes in Rural Health.

At one facility nearby, they have a contact person for the family. That is the ONLY person that can call to get information about the patient. The patient (if able) gives their authority and a "passcode" to that person. If the patient is unable to give consent the Patient Care Advocate works with the family to determine the person who will be the "contact person". When that person calls, ID's themselves and provides the passcode which is set up by the PCA, the physican (if there) or the RN's taking care of the patient are then allowed to talk to the contact person only. If anyone else calls, they refer them back to the contact person.

My husband's g-ma was in the hospital there and I was the contact person. It made it a lot nicer and easier and I could call at anytime and get whatever info I needed from the RN's taking care of her - then family could call me for updates as needed. They were very willing to talk to 1 person rather than 40 people about the same patient.

I work in an ER and I give out very vague information and if more details are wanted/needed, I transfer the call to the patient or find a family member with the patient to talk to the caller. I don't know who these people are.

Tweety, BSN, RN

34,248 Posts

Specializes in Med-Surg, Trauma, Ortho, Neuro, Cardiac.
I think she was just being lazy. Yes, as long as the patient (POA) gives permission, she should have talked to you and given you more information than just that tiny little bit she did.

I agree, since the person said they talked to the patient already and the patient is not giving accurate information, the nurse should have taken some extra steps to comply with HIPPA. What I do is I transfer the call back to the patient, go to the room and say to the patient, " is this your daughter and do you want her to have personal information and the HIPPA PIN #?" It's extra steps, as a POA to my parents who are 1000 miles away I would want this courtesy.

Initially though I would have done as the nurse above did "Do you have a PIN #?", "No? Sorry I can only say he's in good condition and that's it, would you like to talk to the patient and get the information from him?"

TooterIA

189 Posts

Thanks for all the replies.

Apparantly my hospital is way behind the times (but I do still feel like we comply with HIPAA)

Jessica

Specializes in CT ,ICU,CCU,Tele,ED,Hospice.

in the er where i work we are only able to say whether pt is or isn't there .thats it .pt has to give us permission to speak with this person.i will transfer the call to the pt (if they are able).and we do allow visitors so the person is told they may come and see pt.if pt is unable to consent we give no info.once pt has been admitted pt lists in writing 2 people who may receive info on them .those 2 are given code number.when they call the floor they have to have that code number or no info is given.

INtoFL_RN

60 Posts

Our small community hospital's compliance officer says that we can err on the side of giving out general information rather than withholding it (unless that pt has asked to remain confidential/non-disclosure) and still be HIPAA compliant. I usually give a very generic (and quick) response to family members over the phone and then offer to transfer the call to the pt's room.

jill48, ASN, RN

612 Posts

Specializes in Med/Surg, Geri, Ortho, Telemetry, Psych.

Thank you Tweety, not too many people ever agree with me. ;)

TazziRN, RN

6,487 Posts

I remember when HIPAA first came into being, we had a huge inservice on it. We were allowed to acknowledge the presence of a pt and the general status (stable, serious, etc) without breaking confidentiality. Beyond that we had to get the pt's permission to say any more.

We have a huge Hispanic population and many of our pts follow the Mexican tradition of using their mother's maiden name as part of their last name. The legal name might be Jose Sanchez, but the pt would be known to family and friends as Jose Sanchez Martinez. It's not uncommon to get calls asking about Jose Martinez. My answer is "I do not have a pt by that name."

Caller: "I know he's there, I was just there visiting."

Me: "I do not have a pt named Jose Martinez. Can you give me another name he might go by?"

Frustrating, but if I don't have a proper name I will not acknowledge the pt's presence, even when I know that Jose Sanchez and Jose Martinez are the same person.

jamminworld

55 Posts

At our hospital we are not suppose to give out information over the phone without prior consent from the pt however I see nurses doing it all the time. In fact according to the rules we are not allowed to even say the patient is at our hospital. This was the same in the last hospital I worked also (we had many gang members and rival gangs would actually call to see if the pt was there)

MedSurgeMess

985 Posts

Specializes in Med/Surg, ICU, educator.

I work at a small town hospital that we are not supposed to give out info, but have overheard some nurses, CNAs and unit secretaries say stuff on the phone like "Betty has the worst UTI I've ever seen, but the guy in the next room has.......". Freaks me out. And these are the people who always wonder why they are never told any extra sensitive information!

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