Nurses General Nursing
Published May 29, 2011
tokmom, BSN, RN
4,568 Posts
Does your name board that you use for the floor have full last names, initials or ??
We use just the last name along with dr and nurse caring for the patient. Another facility I visited used last name as well. I hear mixed answers on this being a possible violation.
JeneraterRN
256 Posts
We actually just list the room number and nurse. We are a smaller hospital so this works well. Check your HIPAA notice, it may have have something in there regarding this practice. Ours, like many others, states that their name may be listed on a roster and the patient needs to specifically request that it be supressed.
RKpianoman, APRN
110 Posts
I've been noticing this as I do clinicals in area hospitals. All of the "big" hospitals just have the room number...one may have the MD listed under the room number. Only one small hospital still puts pt names up, but they're in the process of re-educating their employees not to do that. Apparently, when they were being reviewed, it was suggested that they quit putting pt last names up; but, they weren't docked for it being a violation.
Interesting.
I worked on a 50 bed med/surg unit and we tried to use just the dr's name on the board next to the room number. The dr would call to see if a pt was admitted and we had no clue by looking at the board. We went back to names.
Our manager says it is legal but others disagree. I can't find anything online concerning my state. It probably would help if I knew where to look.
MunoRN, RN
8,058 Posts
We use an electronic bed manager system with full first and last name. They can't be "in plain view" of the public, although most of ours can be seen from public areas to one degree or another but are either far enough away from public areas or angled enough that they are considered "in plain view", whatever that means.
Mags_RN, BSN
32 Posts
This article answers your question.
Highlights_of_HIPAA_for_nurses.2.pdf
Hey thanks! That does say that a name board would be ok.
hopefulwhoop
264 Posts
At my hospital, the board in the room has the pt's last name + room # + Nurse's first name + Attending's last name.
Flo., BSN, RN
571 Posts
We have room number, the last 3 letters of the last name and first letter of first. Along with MD and RN assgined. So it looks like this
521 Gra, E- Smith- Flo.