Business Cards or Hipaa Violation

Mom2boysRN · Mar 28, 2015

My first thought is... Are they homebound if this is a common issue?

I don't think I would leave something like that. I will leave a message on their voicemail just saying that I dropped by and that I want to schedule an appointment. If you put something on a door you don't know who will see it or how that particular patient will feel about it.

Home Health Columnist / Guide · Mar 28, 2015

As former Intake Manager heard it all why no one visited client.... Trying to keep track of 4,000+ monthly patient census can be a nightmare.

Our agency uses a door hanger card that we leave when doing driveby visits (haven't returned schedulers call/ new admit for wound care/lovenox, scheduled visit but no answer to doorbell)

XYZ agency attempted homecare visit ordered by your doctor.
Please call to schedule or cancel home care services.

Leaving business card taped to door ok under HIPAA. So many times elderly parent never told family getting homecare--family calls to notify agency rehospitalized or spouse calls to tell us patient back to work or patient living with family moved out of state to different son/daughter.

JustMeRN · Mar 29, 2015

I agree with the poster that says why are they not home if they are home Bound? Our agency discharges if not home not found is a pattern. I also leave a voicemail, and contact the emergency contact listed in an attemp to locate a client who is not home not found.

Although i I don't personally care for the idea of leaving a card on the door, I don't imagine it is any more of a hippa violation than walking in the door with your visible name badge or bag with your agency name on it.

RunHeatherRun · Mar 31, 2015

We use door hangers at our agency as well. Sometimes patients aren't home because they went to a doctor's appointment they forgot to mention or they are in the hospital. Of course, definitely question the home bound status if it's recurring (or they say they went to the casino lol), but sometimes there are legitimate reasons why they were not home. I always leave a voicemail as well, if possible, and contact the emergency contact/spouse to find out if they are okay. Sometimes, if there is no emergency contact, I will call the local hospitals to find out if they were admitted.

KelRN215, BSN, RN · Mar 31, 2015

We cancel referrals if we can't get a hold of the family to schedule the admission. Sometimes people agree to a visiting nurse because it's the only way the hospital will let them go home and then they figure if they just don't call the nurse back they get what they wanted in the first place- to go home without services. I don't have time to play these games with people, I notify the referring source and the primary MD of our inability to reach the family, try to find alternate numbers and if after reasonable efforts have been exhausted, we still can't reach the family we cancel the referral. Once, we were concerned enough to file with CPS as the referral was for a home safety assessment on a child who'd ingested Mom's Xanax. But, in general, I'm not in the business of forcing nursing on people.

RunHeatherRun · Apr 1, 2015

Yes, we definitely cancel referrals for the same reason. I was referring to patient's already on service.