My HIPAA mistake.

[somenurse]

I have done a HIPAA violation, and looking back on it, i can't believe i did this. As an older nurse, it has not been the easiest of things for me to reform my previously sloppy (by today's standards) ways of patient protection.

I will share this story, but, kinda doubt anyone can learn from it, as, most nurses today are so so so more HIPAA savvy, than i was.

I was working in outpatient surgery center (very fun work, btw)

My guys absolute best friend, "T", came in for minor removal of a fatty lipoma (benign lump on his shoulder of fat tissue). Weird thing is, my guy had exact same thing done the month before.

"T" is at our home most every day, it seems, i mean, this guy is super close to both of us, like family.

HERE'S WHERE I WENT STUPID (cuz i was so so casual and comfortable with this patient, i let my HIPAA guard down)

After my lunch hour, "T" is now dressed and ready to go home, and i told him that my guy said to tell "T" this or that (a joke) about how to recover from this 'surgery', and "T" and i laffed about some jokes about maybe something is in the lake we all swam in all the time, causing these lumps on both "T" and on my guy.

Somewhere in there, i had said to "T", that i had told my guy on my lunch break, via cell phone, that "T" is going to be going home soon, so my guy should go over and check on "T" in an hour or so.

We had only curtains between the patient recliners in this area of discharge area.

another nurse overheard me, discussing my guy's joke advice for "T", and for telling my guy to go over and check on "T" in an hour or so,

and wrote me up for HIPAA violation. I got in huge trouble, (for telling my guy that "T" is about to go home)

(as i should have)

and it was all rediscussed at my evaluation that year, too. Big ol file on it, in my employee file, came up every now and then, during evaluations forever after, that i had an actual HIPAA violation on file.

I felt about one inch tall. I did know better.

("T" , who came over for a dressing change that evening, had no complaint whatsoever, that i had told my guy he was being discharged,

and "T" was stunned i got in trouble, and wanted to call my boss, but, i told him that would only make it worse)

anyway, i guess the moral of the story here might be:

BE EXTRA CAREFUL, if you are dealing with super close pals as patients,

that you treat their privacy just as you would a total stranger's privacy. It's tempting to think of them the way you do OUTSIDE of the hospital, but, while they are IN the hospital, they ARE actual, official "patients" like anyone else.

[BostonTerrierLover, BSN, RN]

Oh good! I'm glad you got out of there! If you never heard anything else when being hired on somewhere else- I seriously doubt there was any "Federal" write-up beyond the file at your facility. All I check for in hiring Legal wise is a FBI/Local background check, an I9, a citizen US thing online, license verification, and the Medicaid/Medicare Fraud.

[alwaysglad]

I'm a new nurse and find HIPAA to be more of a challenge than most people think it is. I've made mistakes I thought were really harmless too and thankfully haven't gotten in trouble for it yet. Now I see, a HIPAA violation is a violation indeed.

[jadelpn, LPN, EMT-B]

I was actually spoken to because my best friend's s.o. had surgery, she called me and asked to come check on him as he wanted to be sure that he did his dressing correctly, (and was quite proud of himself and wanted to "show off" lol) and it somehow got back, and of course, I was "taking business away" from the home health department, the outpatient clinic for follow ups, etc etc......I was a bit shocked. So my new rule is "If I know you and love you like family, you will be someone else's patient". We all instinctively protect and want the best for those we care about. And it is just automatic that we would "make plans" for that person as far as checking up on them, etc. To avoid any conflict of interest--and I live in a small town where one knows just about everyone--if I know OF you, then game on, however, anything beyond that and I can not care for you. "I love you, but I don't need to know your business."