Was This a HIPAA Violation?

[PacoUSA]

So I have a friend on Facebook (lets call her Jane) who posts a status message regarding how people should not be judgmental of people that receive public assistance, not everyone that receives it is lazy, etc. Anyway, several people did comment with their own stories and what have you, then I happen to notice that one of Jane's friends pipes in with her related comment and then states "... and were u in the ER in [the local hospital]?? I thought I saw a name that looked like yours..." I was a little taken aback by this. I texted Jane to ask her if her friend is a health care worker and she replied that she is. I told Jane what she said on Facebook and told her that I thought it was inappropriate. Jane happens to have a chronic health condition that if not managed well with regular medicine lands her in the hospital for treatment. However, she is very open about her condition and how she lives with it, but that is not the issue. Nowhere in her recent posts did she mention that she had been to the ER recently (I knew about it already since we work together). It just did not seem right that this friend of hers put it out there on a public forum that Jane might have been in the ER and got this knowledge through the census. Maybe I am wrong in my thinking? Just curious to know.

Thoughts?

[canesdukegirl, BSN, RN]

This was most definitely a HIPAA violation.

[April, RN, BSN, RN]

For the record, Jane had not told her friend about her ER visit, and Jane was actually surprised that the friend would ask about it in a comment like that among 4 other people she did not know.

Did Jane respond to her friend's comment?

[PacoUSA, BSN, RN]

Did Jane respond to her friend's comment?

Not on Facebook from what I have noticed. Well, not directly to the friend's comment that is, she only replied to other people instead. Perhaps in private she may have mentioned something but I have not been updated to that effect.