what happens next

[ohmeowzer RN, RN]

what happens next after you report a HIPAA violation to your boss? after the write up i gave that nurse for talking to me about a patients staples in a dining room full of patients.. then what happens ? how do they determine your punishment and can you get fired? thank you all in advance

[nurseprnRN, BSN, RN]

I don't know exactly what you're describing. You were in the patient dining room and a nurse told you something about a patient's staples? Like surgical staples? And you reported this nurse for a HIPAA violation (to whom)? And you think you are going to be punished or fired for it? Or you think the nurse is going to be punished or fired for it? And you want to know the timeframe for this?

Whatever. The general rule is that HIPAA violations, if they are determined to be real (and with this description, I'm not totally convinced yet), mean fines on the facility from the feds, not on the individual person (in the case you sorta kinda describe, the "nurse").

If the facility discovers the violation, the facility decides 1) if the disclosure rises to the level of a true HIPAA violation (if so, they are required to report it), and 2) what consequences they choose to apply to the person who made the disclosure. It's the facility's choice to fire, put on probation, report to the BoN, or ... .

We see a LOT of "HIPAA violation!!!" threads here, and the vast majority of them don't describe HIPAA violations at all. So I don't know if this helps you much.

[Esme12, ASN, BSN, RN]

Your senior administration will conduct an investigation ans if there is a violation....discipline/suspension/termination will be decided by them

[danggirl16]

I find it...interesting...that facilities are charged with the requirement to "self-report" HIPPA violations or any other violation for that matter which would result in potential sanctions on the facility. Two personal experiences: once I was hospitalized for an entire month. In the middle of the night, a nurse I had previously worked with on another unit came to my room ostensibly just to say "hi". I was completely appalled when she said

"I heard you were in the hospital so I pulled up your medical record to check on you. So you have xyz huh? Have you seen the results to the xyz test yet?"!

I was so angry! I immediately reported it to the nursing supervisor. The next day the nurse manager came in to talk to me. But after that nothing ever happened. She basically told me to keep it to myself and she would take care of it.

The second incident wasn't a HIPPA violation but an EMTALA violation. A lady came to the ED wanting to have an elbow checked that she had recently had surgery on (it was Saturday night). The charge nurse, after asking in a quite condescending tone if the patient had called her dr - and I kid not - said

"You don't need to be in the ER for that. Why did you come here? You need to see your doctor."

Well the poor lady said "ok" and left. One the way out of the ED in the parking lot, she tripped and fell and hit her elbow on the concrete. Needless to say, NOW she needed to be seen in the ED. Staples partially removed, x-rays, drain placed, IV antibiotics.

I reported this to my nurse manager and was pretty much told the same thing...I'll take care of it...that nurse has a history of doing that. Then...nothing. Except I got blacklisted out of a job.

Point is, why would they report it if it means a hefty fine and other repercussions?

I think a lot of places have a hotline set up but still many staff choose to use their chain of command to report. Seems like the only thing that happens if anything is...depending on the infraction...the offending party gets counseled etc and it then gets swept under the rug.