Calling out the pts name in the waiting room...HIPAA?

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I have a question for you guys. In our ED, when a pt comes in to be seen, they'll fill out a slip and have a seat in our waiting room. The registration person will put them into our system and their name will come up as a new pt. At that time, the triage nurse will see this new pt and call their name into the waiting room for triage. Is this a HIPPA violation? Does anyone do anything different? Thanks in advance for your input!

:nurse:Teresa

Specializes in ER, progressive care.
Picturing the fast food or deli counter line: "Now serving pt number 387! 387!!"

They do that for the military, at least for the pharmacy here as well as clinics. :)

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Specializes in ER, progressive care.

We have restaurant style pagers. I like to hand them out but I have noticed that everyone doesn't adhere to that practice...and now they have fallen out of favor with our staff (but not necessarily with management). So now we just call out names.

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Specializes in Emergency, Telemetry, Transplant.
We have restaurant style pagers. I like to hand them out but I have noticed that everyone doesn't adhere to that practice...and now they have fallen out of favor with our staff (but not necessarily with management). So now we just call out names.

Here is the potential problem with the pager system…Suppose a patient signs in, and they are given a pager by registration. The go to the bathroom, leave the pager in there. We page them, they don't have their pager. Go on to the next triage. Page again, no answer. Next triage. If the person who lost their pager actually had a "serious" medical condition, they are now waiting longer (or perhaps leaving) because they misplaced their pager. All that can be saved by calling out their name.

Yes, it is totally inappropriate to give someone test results in a public area. However, that is way different than simply calling out a name (and name only) to an ED waiting room.

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Specializes in Pediatrics, Emergency, Trauma.
Are you being serious?

I would LOVE to see if anyone could get the spelling of my first name correct and my last name...NOT! :roflmao:

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Picturing the fast food or deli counter line: "Now serving pt number 387! 387!!"

Way more fun at the restaurants that use famous names: "Willy Wonka" and "Ozzy Osbourne", your burger...er...room is ready!

Probably have to let them choose so no one is offended.

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Yes, I agree a bit excessive. Are we going to resort to not having last names at all in schools. Really? you are who you are regardless. There are hundreds of you out there. Why does it matter? I am more apt to wanting to be called by my last name, since my name is unusual and draws attention. I think HIPAA has gone overboard, anyway.

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Sure, and now at Burger King they call you by your first name. Odd, but I don't want to be a number. I am who I am, no changing it, and it definitely does not define who I am and what is going on with me.

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