What do you all think of this?

[New CCU RN]

had to edit

[RN always, BSN, RN]

ewwww, scary. what about if someone forgot to log off and someone else came and looked up a patients information. Happens all the time at our hospital. Everyone is always in a hurry.

[BadBird, BSN, RN]

Being agency and not always having computer access, many different nurses look up lab results for me, I wonder if they take that into account. I sure would use the suspension as a opportunity to job hunt out of there. Just another reason staff nurses are leaving, God what will they think of next.

[Tweety, BSN, RN]

Something probably happened. i.e. one patient sued them for a breech in confidentiality and now they are overreacting. Typical hospital management.

[Stargazer]

That was my first reaction too, 3rdShift. Sounds like there's threatened legal action a-brewin' and hospital administration wants to be able to say that it strictly monitors and weeds out offenders, even if it's clearly after the fact.

[Furball]

I just realised that I forgot to log off this am before I left work.......go ahead....fire me...I need the vacation.

[New CCU RN]

edited

[Gomer]

You Bet, Fire Them! At my hospital "disregard of the confidentality statement" is grounds for termination, as is letting someone have access to your network password. Also, they violated HIPPA regulations which could put your hospital in jeopardy of breaking federal law.

For those of you who oppose the termination...how would you feel if you were a patient in your own hospital and someone accessed your medical records.

[Y2KRN]

Hello,

I know this sounds scary but, it does have to be done if there are just a few offenders in the lot. I work ER and we have an electronic charting system. There are many times we have to get into charts if we are covering or floating. We once had a celebrity at our hospital and many people were logging on to his chart, it turned out that they could track who was legit and needed to be there and who did not. I would not be afraid if I forgot to log off. I think they will be looking for more than one time or the frequency of how many times someone is not where they don't need to be.

I would not want people in my chart who didn't need to be there.

Y2KRN

[OBNURSEHEATHER]

This is happening in hospitals around here, people, nurses I know. Management is blaming it on HIPPA.

Heather

[maureeno]

while I am strong for pt confidentiality, what about checking on a pt you had cared for to see how they were doing and learn something about how your care helped or not?

[Repat]

You all seem to be missing something here - I don't know about you, but if I am charting at the computer and a doctor asks for some results for one of his/her patients, I will always oblige and look them up, whether the patient is my assignment or not. Can you imagine if I said 'That violates confidentiality; wait for me to log off and you can log on and look it up yourself.' Somehow, I think that would go over like a lead balloon ('remember, the doctors are our customers, too').