Possible HIPAA trouble help me please!

Nurses HIPAA

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Just to give a little background I've been very stressed and lacking in nutrition and sleep lately on top of being 8 months pregnant and almost giving birth twice early, when I came back to work I've been making mistakes in the workplace such as many misspellings and even typing the wrong patients in for look up. I accidentally typed a name of a person I kinda know personally in the system and only their name name, dob, and address popped up once I I realized what I did wrong I immediately exed out of it. I believe I had done this because just before I had been having a conversation with someone about the person, so with that person still on my mind i typed in their name by accident if that makes sense. That was not the first time I made the mistake of having the wrong persons info up and immediately x-ing out but it is the first time I typed their name in. I don't want it to seem like I had any malicious intent it was just a mistake of looking at one thing and typing what was on my mind instead which I and I'm sure that other people have done as well. Does this sound like a HIPAA violation I could get fired for? It was an honest mistake and now I am super paranoid! Please help?!?! What should I do?

Allow*. As nurses we all struggle. We need to stick together.

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Specializes in SICU, trauma, neuro.

OP I don't think you'll have a HIPAA issue... but if you're "making many mistakes" on just your pt list, maybe you should ask your OB if you're okay to work? I get pregnancy brain and sleep deprivation -- I've been there 5x. I would just hate to "see" you make patient care mistakes/med errors if you're this foggy.

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Specializes in HIV.

I thought one of the rules for posting was using proper English... has this gone out the back door? Anyway, you should ask for more Epic training.

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If you have not contacted your exes employer about violating your privacy you should strongly consider doing so. Secondly, contact the authorities and ask if you can file a no contact order against your ex for harassment. Thirdly, if your hospital has a grievance process and/or a grievance officer contact them immediately and have them start helping you. A lot of what you are going through is because you feel helpless and/or powerless. Stop feeling that way. Start doing positive things that remind you that can control some if not all of the things that are happening to you. Even if they are only small things. Start now. And fourth. Contact a counselor and engage with them about the emotional issues that your ex is causing.

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Specializes in ICU; Telephone Triage Nurse.

OP, I agree that it would be beneficial if you can go on maternity leave now.

People who've never been pregnant underestimate the sheer work involved in making another human being. The baby gets nearly all of your immune system, the lion's share of all your nutrients, and it is waaaay exhausting. You grow more uncomfortable as time progresses, and I challenge anyone 8 1/2 months into their pregnancy to find a comfortable sleeping position. I remember having no bladder capacity at that stage of pregnancy - visiting the can every 15-30 minutes day and night. The heartburn was like Mt. Vesuvius near term - let alone being kicked to death from the inside (LOL). It's no wonder you are making mistakes - who wouldn't? Your mind is obviously sequestered elsewhere - not to say you're not a fabo nurse, but we as humans all have our limits.

I believe talking to your OB provider and getting a note for early maternity leave will help quite a bit for your stress levels if you can financially swing it.

Good luck, and easy delivery blessings to you my friend.

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Specializes in ICU; Telephone Triage Nurse.
Monday my manager called me and said HR and privacy managers wanted to speak to me and I as like for what. I figured maybe when I had a patient two days prior I went back through her chart to see if I had charted everything correctly since we switched bloods transfusions from paperwork to computers now.

So so I spoke with them yesterday. Mind you I started in April. They said I accessed two charts, and they had snap shots of these two peoples charts labs, notes vitals etc and I was like whoa, no those people aren't familiar to me I have no idea who they are. it looked like someone spent two hours going through these two peoples charts.

I have to wonder if you accidentally left yourself logged thinking you had existed the computer? Then a resident, intern, or medical student opened the computer before it locked and browsed their patients? I don't know what the time frame is before your facility's computers lock while unattended, or if they even do, but ours do after 7-14 minutes (yeah that's a vague time estimate, but I swear it seems to change and I haven't pinned that time frame down quite yet).

If those patients are unfamiliar it seems like the only thing that fits. I can't imagine a coworker having that kind of free time to just sit in front of a computer reviewing patient's histories for 2 hours uninterrupted.

I'm so sorry about your whack-a-doddle ex too. Some ex's get desperate and literally want to destroy the person who scorned and left them - even if they deserved it.

I experienced something similar 20 years ago - I wanted to leave my husband for psychological abuse, and he threatened that if I did he would sue me for child support and full custody (he was a stay at home dad for the first 2 years after our son was born while I hustled working over time with 2 jobs on a new grad's salary {not good in my state in the early to mid 1990's} ... a very jealous, imaginative psychotic stay at home dad. I learned too late that being confined to the house with an infant did his personality and mind no good).

The stories of him going to my work while I ran for my life with a toddler are too lengthy - but you get my point.

I agree an attorney is crucial. Protect yourself - take no prisoners! Good luck and God bless girlfriend.

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Specializes in Tele, ICU, Staff Development.

The third person I am guilty of. In April I first started and didn't know epic didn't train on the modules yet. I was just clicking on buttons. A space bar popped up. So on auto pilot i typed in my exes name and was like nope and I backed out. Less than 30 seconds.

I'm so sorry you are going through all this. I really hope you don't lose your job.

Unfortunately, employees are being fired for situations just like this. You might want to prepare for termination in case it happens. So you have a Plan B.

If it happens, keep in mind this is not the end of your career, just this job. People get fired and land other jobs all the time.

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I plan on resigning But thank you. It's been very depressing. I love this job and it's amazing but I have to cut my losses

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Specializes in Oncology.

I made the exact same mistake with Epic . Only I accidentally opened the chart. A close family friend was on the same unit I was working on. I did tell my supervisors and the friend was totally fine with me being there. He told me there was nothing in his chart I didn't already know. Still I had no intention of looking.

I was looking to see if home care had been arranged for a patient in an adjacent room. The page for the unit on Epic hadn't entirely loaded and so I accidentally clicked on the friend's chart!

I asked an IT person what to do. She said not to worry too much. The system would log how long I spent in the chart-since it was a few seconds maximum, that'd support my story that it was an accident if I ever got audited. Nothing ever came of it.

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Specializes in Oncology.
I plan on resigning But thank you. It's been very depressing. I love this job and it's amazing but I have to cut my losses

They should know that you wouldn't have time to comb through charts that long. Could you admit that you may have left your computer logged in a while back? I don't know about your place but at mine, we'd get remediation on computer security but termination would be unlikely.

I worry that resigning would look like an admission of guilt.

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I asked them if they go through my epic and find nothing would could happen that I opened my exes chart. They said termination. So either way I feel as if my job is at risk. My ex has done a lot of damage to me. Mentally, and emotionally. He's a narcissist. He's taking his anger from his ex wife cheating with his best friend out on me. Because I don't understand how much hate he has in his heart for me. It's so heartbreaking. My mom told me I'll never win with a narcissist. I've tried placing a ppo on him multiple times. Each time it's been denied. He has the history of violence and stalking. But was able to put one on me for nothing with the help of my sister. Now they made a bunch of lies and I'm in contempt of court. And we go to court on the 10th. And I'm scared for my life. It's been a year of hell for me. I've never harmed a soul never done anything to him or anybody else. After this court date. God willing I'm found not guilty I'm picking up selling my house and moving. I can't handle it anymore. It's so sad. He treated me like a princess did everything for me. Then he snapped. I'll never trust another man again.

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Can you tell me what happened in your situation? I am dealing with something similar. Searched names in the database but never opened or accessed a chart- people call sometimes wanting information about discharge info and all sorts of things. wondering if the searches and key strokes come up in an audit or just accessed charts. Ok thank you. Very worried. I have also searched names on accident as you do

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