Good Old HIPAA Violation!

[shodobe]

This is for everyon'e info. recently I got into trouble for a HIPAA violation at my hospital. First major infraction in 31 years! Early part of last month I was doing a case in the OR when we heard that a RT employee had come into the ED in full code. I was already in the ER roster looking up a potential patient for the surgeon and saw the name and looked to see if I knewhim. I know alot of the RT but didn't know him by name. I forgot about it until a few days ago when I was called into the "pricipals" office downstairs, not my Directors' office. I was asked if I had indeed loked and I said yes because I wanted to make sure it wasn't a friend of mine. They told me that there had been quite a number of hits, we use computer nursing, and hey were going to talk with everyone. They also told me there would be disciplinary actions taken , but not termination. I thought I would probably get written up and that would be it. Instead I got a 3 day suspension. The HIPAA czar I talked to had said the rules had gotten much stricter after the first of the year but I didn't expect this. I went into our HIPAA manual and looked up the policies concerning punishments. It went form verbal consuling to written ,all the way up to suspension and termination. They jumped all the way up to final warning and suspension. I don't mind the suspension as much as they might of chaned the policies concerning punishment and did not inservice or inform the employees of such changes. I only think it would be fair on their part to do formal inservices or at least put out memos to the changes. This post is for info for everyone to watch out, "They are watching"!

[netglow, ASN, RN]

Yikes they sure are. I am a student, nursing is my second career. Came from the nasty corporate world... already know they are watching Only they get ya faster now in medicine. I've got a great radar for it, will have to adjust it up a notch for nursing... I can even feel the slight movement in the atmosphere that a knife makes as it travels towards my back (thats good, most times I can get out of the way in time)

[Whispera, MSN, RN]

It was an extreme punishment, I agree. However you DID look to see if it was someone you know. That's what the rules are for--to prevent that as well as digging into the whole history. It's not ok!

[Princess_M83]

Well. That is why HIPAA exists. We have no right to look up a patient's information unless we are directly caring for that patient. End of story. Legally you are not even allowed to look up your own information either.

[ANH_RN]

It's amazing how tricky it can be at times. We're not allowed to look at the ED triage list in the computer but some nurses do it anyways. We're not even allowed to look up our patients before they come up to us EVEN AFTER we get report!! I don't agree with this because they have, on occasion, come up with + troponins and the ER nurse never mentions them, etc. Things like that. Sometimes it can get a little out of hand. I don't think they should have jumped to the most extreme punishment.. unless you do it all the time. You did not even get a verbal. ** I agree, I would never look up to see if it's anyone that I know.

[Whispera, MSN, RN]

I agree with you ANH_RN, but when looking up to see if it's someone we know it's a different thing.

[Spidey's mom, ADN, BSN, RN]

I know it is tempting to look but this is a good rule.

I had my last child at a hospital down the hill instead of my own hospital - something about having colleagues helping with my delivery bothered private old me:coollook: . . . . Anyway, I ended up with an emergency cesarean and all turned out fine. But later an old colleague from MY hospital who now worked at the other hospital ran into me and started talking about my delivery, saying she had looked up my records on the computer.

I worked for that hospital later - and during orientation brought up this incident without naming names. Just to point out that privacy in the computer age is difficult.

steph

[Moneypitt]

The punishment seems harsh, but it is that way at my health system as well for computer HIPPA violations. I think it is because there is proof of a violation in which they are tracking all violations. They are on the record when it comes to discipline, so they need to cover their backside.

[Jolie, BSN]

I' not trying to excuse behavior that the OP must have known was wrong.

But strictly from a disciplinary point of view, she may be able to successfully appeal the disciplinary action if she can prove that the institution changed its policy regarding the steps in the disciplinary process without notifying employees of the change.

Does the hospital re-write its Human Resources manual on a yearly basis? If so, are employees provided with a new manual, or at least a formal notification and/or inservice on the changes?

[shodobe]

I was expecting some sort of punishment but not to this extreme. My concern is that the rules have been made harsher and it seems the corpoarate offices have failed to inform the masses. They haven't even upgraded our HIPAA policy books. My boss even siad this was too much a punishment. True, this now makes it harder for us to take care of problems before the patient comes to the OR. My co-workers have said they will not ever look at a patient's chart beforehand even if the surgeon or anesthesiologist requests it. They have their own passwords so they can look up info.

[smalltownnurse2506]

I know people are looking at the ER rosters all the time where I work and I have never heard of anyone being punished. I don't think it should be happening, but nobody seems to keep track. I had gone to the ER one morning after work for stitches. When I returned to work that night another nurse, who works night shift and was not in the hospital that morning, asked me why I had been in the ER.

[superwifenursewoman]

recently a family member was diagnosed with a chronic condition. some time later this family member received a brochure from a for profit company about their produce. to cut a long long investigative story short a nurse on his unit had sent his information to the company. He never found out if this nurse had received money from this company, however................ Although the thought behind looking up to see if a friend had been admitted, was I know totally innocent, how would you like it if I "looked u up", saw your personal details, age address, family social ect history. Nothing is that simple unfortunately.