Disclosing that you cared for a pt??

[Kamphaus5]

Last night I took care of a pt, that I know is engaged to a friend I went to high school with, although she doesn't know me. He's been posting updates all day, and has tagged them at the hospital. Someone just commented and tagged me and said "Did nurse (my name) see her?" because she knows I work there. What am I allowed to say? She did not set restrictions on the release of her name at the hospital, so we can confirm that she is there if someone were to call.

[RNsRWe, ASN, RN]

ah, thanks :)

Sounds.....dangerous!

[dudette10, MSN, RN]

Untag yourself. Don't reply to the post or PMs. Don't freak out over it. :)

[StuCozza123]

...

Sounds.....dangerous!

...and scary, too!

Seriously, the advice to "untag" and to not discuss any patient's presence or care in the facility is the best advice. :)

[T-Bird78]

If you can't untag yourself, then reply with the message "You know I can't say who I have/have not treated at work due to HIPAA". You're not confirming or denying and putting a stop to the questions, and hopefully preventing any unnecessary PM.

[AmyRN303, BSN, RN]

If you can't untag yourself, then reply with the message "You know I can't say who I have/have not treated at work due to HIPAA". You're not confirming or denying and putting a stop to the questions, and hopefully preventing any unnecessary PM.

And that will hopefully give them pause in the future....

[toomuchbaloney]

I would pm the person and ask them to untag you if you are unable to do it yourself.

I would not comment at all on the post, I would ignore it.

You cannot be held accountable for something that another has posted.

You may not speak about the care of an individual assigned to you at work...use that as your baseline for all FB posts...

You should not speak about your employer on FB unless you would be okay with being questioned about your comments by the employer and potentially losing your job.

[Meriwhen, ASN, BSN, MSN, RN]

Please keep in mind that the patient can say anything they want about their care, including who cared for them, and it's not a HIPAA violation. On the other hand, YOU saying something about caring for them, even with an implied consent such as the patient posting "Yes, Nurse X did care for me", is asking for HIPAA trouble.

[Sassy-RN]

This has happened to me twice. I had posted a happy Birthday message on a friends page and her sister recognized me as being one of her nurses and commented, "thanks for taking great care of me after surgery!" I felt uneasy but just ignored it. I figured she was the one that told people, not me. If I would have asked her to take it down, people have already seen the comment. By leaving it there is proof that she is the telling people about it. ( in case anyone else says anything.)

Another time a family of a patient knew my husbands family. They posted an update on there family member and said, " and our dad is getting great nursing care, thank you (my name)! Once again I just ignored it.

Unfortunately they don't understand working in health care and HIPAA.

[AmyRN303, BSN, RN]

This has happened to me twice. I had posted a happy Birthday message on a friends page and her sister recognized me as being one of her nurses and commented, "thanks for taking great care of me after surgery!" I felt uneasy but just ignored it. I figured she was the one that told people, not me. If I would have asked her to take it down, people have already seen the comment. By leaving it there is proof that she is the telling people about it. ( in case anyone else says anything.)

Another time a family of a patient knew my husbands family. They posted an update on there family member and said, " and our dad is getting great nursing care, thank you (my name)! Once again I just ignored it.

Unfortunately they don't understand working in health care and HIPAA.

If they're mentioning you as pertains to their healthcare, not a problem. They have the right to disclose what they want. If you'd sought them out and mentioned it, that'd be another story, but not a violation if the patient discloses voluntarily. That being said, I wouldn't comment on it even if someone did mention me as their nurse.

[KelRN215, BSN, RN]

If you can't untag yourself, you CAN report the comment to facebook and say "this is about me" and ask them to remove it. I've never reported comments like this about me but have reported things that used hate language and they have responded and removed the postings.

You cannot acknowledge that you cared for the patient. They can say whatever they want. I remember a few years back, my childhood best friend had a baby in the hospital in our town. Someone we graduated high school with is a nurse there. They are facebook friends because, back in the day when facebook first came out, you added everyone you went to high school with before you realized you actually don't care about these people. Anyway, Friend #1 (patient) posted on Friend #2's wall something like "Thanks for taking good care of me and the baby." That is fine. Were it the other way around and Friend #2 (nurse) posted on Friend #1's wall something like "it was great to see you again, congrats on the baby", not ok since she found out about the baby through being Friend 1's nurse.

I briefly worked at this hospital as an aide when I was in nursing school. I saw people I knew all the time. I took care of friends' grandparents, neighbors, people I used to deliver the newspaper to, parents of people my mother worked with, etc. At times, my mom would say "Oh, Sue said she saw you at the hospital the other day when she went to visit her mother on your floor" and I wouldn't even acknowledge it.

My mother is also notorious for asking me things like "did you take care of that kid I saw on the news who got hit by a car?" or things like that. When I worked in the hospital we had a lot of high profile cases that made the news. I just told her I couldn't discuss it and dropped it.