Employee Observations and HIPAA

[wildlaurelrn]

Our department management has agreed that nursing staff will be observed by interns who work for the marketing/customer service department within our organization. The observations are meant to see if we are providing customer service and we have been told the observers are going to accompany us into patient rooms when we examine them. I am uncomfortable with that and believe we should at least get the patient's permission. These aren't medical or nursing students - they're college kids getting a degree in marketing. If I was a patient, I wouldn't want them in the room when I'm discussing my personal health issues. Does anyone else see a problem with this? It isn't as though it's a nursing or medical student who needs to be present to learn about their profession - these people aren't there to learn about patient care - it's an HR observation.

[alpha omega]

No. The patient or their proxy has to give permission.

[nguyency77, CNA]

Totally not appropriate. I love how they're there to observe whether you guys are providing "customer service."

What is this, Comcast?

[nurse2033, MSN, RN]

If they respect the confidentiality then there is no HIPAA violation. But, I believe it is a violation of the patient's privacy.

[Rob72, ASN, RN]

The "confidentiality agreement" is a non-sequiter: every employee signs one, but the legal finding is that unless one is directly involved in delivering care, one does not have the right to general access. Trying to say that BA interns should have free access is no different than agreeing to allow nursing students to look at any available chart in EMR (this has been determined to be illegal).

Sorry, its a no-go. Admn. can probably try to weasel around it, but I would drop an anonymous dime: How To File a Complaint

Even if their framework is deemed "legal", this will make them duck for a bit.

[Ruas61, BSN, RN]

Why do you have a manhole protector thing in your tagline? 0o

[KittyBinimi]

I say it's a HIPAA violation, but my manager says it's not because the interns sign confidentiality agreements...but they're still not directly involved in patient care and don't need to be in the room to evaluate customer service necessarily. It'd be different if they were a nurse or medical professional there to ensure competency (e.g., when we're checked off on things like portacath access or NG tube placements), but this has nothing to do with actual patient care.

So, if I wanna go home and disclose patient so-and-so's medical information to my friends and family, it's all good as long as I get them to sign a confidentiality agreement?

[Rob72, ASN, RN]

Why do you have a manhole protector thing in your tagline? 0o

Because a complaint to the Fed will cause legal to draw their drawers up tightly to avoid a very public Federal buggering.

Its not part of my tag, just a pic at the end of the post.