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I'm an RN in a rural hospital in a town of approx 6,000. On weekends we often get relief medical imaging and lab staff from the trauma hospital 40 miles away.

I was on Facebook tonight and came across the profile of the Medical Imaging tech that worked this past weekend. As I was looking at her profile I noticed that she had a note about her weekend. She was complaining about the Resident who ordered x rays on a kid from a motorbike crash. She stated the age of the kid and she named the injury he had and all of the x-rays that were ordered.

I'm shocked as this is so wrong and a definite no-no. I'm not sure if I should bring this to management's attention or because she is only at our hospital on a relief basis just let say nothing. What are your thoughts?

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Specializes in Infection Preventionist/ Occ Health.

I would bring it to management's attention. This could be considered a HIPAA violation and as such put your organization at risk for a costly lawsuit.

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If there's enough info for a pt to be recognized, and there was, then it is a definite HIPAA violation and should be reported.

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Specializes in Nursing Professional Development.

Even if it's only "close," but not technically a violation, it should be reported. In fact, all or our hospitals may want to add a few sentences to our HIPAA education to let staff know that such disclosure is wrong.

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Specializes in CNA; LPN Student.

To be honest, I'd probably contact her and let her know it's a HIPPA violation and she should remove it from facebook or you'll have to report it. Because if you just up and report it, she might lose her job, and she might have kids or something and I woudn't want to do that to somebody without at least a friendly warning first.

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Specializes in Nurse Scientist-Research.

Before we pass any judgment on this individual. . . What you relayed would not to me seem too much information. Certainly not as much information as we give sometimes on this site. I do not know how much the OP discloses when he/she posts but I know there are plenty of responsible individuals who disclose what I feel would hold up to HIPAA. I listed a random sampling of posts mostly from ER/OB and ICU type forums because I read those mostly. To any out there who posted, I am NOT judging any who posted below, I do the same.

https://allnurses.com/forums/f18/venting-frustrating-234857.html

https://allnurses.com/forums/f18/another-triage-vent-thread-235142.html

https://allnurses.com/forums/f33/peritoneal-dialysis-infants-236242.html

https://allnurses.com/forums/f33/how-handle-hypoglycemia-234905.html

https://allnurses.com/forums/f33/patent-foramen-ovale-229190.html

https://allnurses.com/forums/f69/help-inability-swallow-222739.html

https://allnurses.com/forums/f95/inspiring-stories-204957.html

https://allnurses.com/forums/f35/what-do-kind-patient-236127.html

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Thanks for the responses...I decided to report it to management and apparently other staff reported it as well. I think that although the details itself may be non-specific and appropriate for this setting, on a site like facebook where member of a local community, co workers, friends, etc changes the circumstances of who is looking at it. As well, real names are used on facebook and not usernames as on here. Just serves as a good reminder as you never know who might read what you write.

Thanks again.

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Another example of why people should do more thinking before acting. There have been comments about people getting in trouble over their use of this site, I imagine because they were online at work or were recognized at work. I remember someone saying she had to change her username because she was recognized at work. Violations should be very blatant before someone gets fired though.

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You do have to be very careful, often I think people give too much information on here about situations.

In a small town of 6000 people the age and description of accident/injuries would be enough to identify a person. It could be argued about a HIPAA violation but in my honest opinion "a HIPAA violation" is not that important--potential to be costly but again not that important when compared to the breech of patient confidentiality.

I think the original poster absolutely did the right thing in reporting this to administration. Our patients (and even us when we are patients) need to have faith that their medical conditions/histories are confidential. Posting that information is also very unprofessional and portrays a bad image about the staff and facility.

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If there's enough info for a pt to be recognized, and there was, then it is a definite HIPAA violation and should be reported.

I agree 100%...how horribly insensitive of that employee!

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Specializes in med/surg, geri, ortho, telemetry, psych.
Before we pass any judgment on this individual. . . What you relayed would not to me seem too much information. Certainly not as much information as we give sometimes on this site. I do not know how much the OP discloses when he/she posts but I know there are plenty of responsible individuals who disclose what I feel would hold up to HIPAA. I listed a random sampling of posts mostly from ER/OB and ICU type forums because I read those mostly. To any out there who posted, I am NOT judging any who posted below, I do the same.

https://allnurses.com/forums/f18/venting-frustrating-234857.html

https://allnurses.com/forums/f18/another-triage-vent-thread-235142.html

https://allnurses.com/forums/f33/peritoneal-dialysis-infants-236242.html

https://allnurses.com/forums/f33/how-handle-hypoglycemia-234905.html

https://allnurses.com/forums/f33/patent-foramen-ovale-229190.html

https://allnurses.com/forums/f69/help-inability-swallow-222739.html

https://allnurses.com/forums/f95/inspiring-stories-204957.html

https://allnurses.com/forums/f35/what-do-kind-patient-236127.html

While I agree that the facebook descriptions probably did go too far in such a small town, especially if she also lists on her page where she works, etc.; I do not agree that the above posts were in violation of HIPAA regulations. They did not say what hospital they worked in and they did not use any names. Maybe I'm dead wrong, and if so, please let me know so I don't make the same mistake.

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