HIPAA And My Rights As An Employee

Specializes in Geriatric, ortho, neuro and bariatric.

I am employed at a hospital. I called off last week due to a nasal infection s/p a nose job 4 weeks ago. When I called off the charge nurse told me would have to have a H1N1 test done or else I would not be able to return to work for 7 days. I had no problem asking my Dr. to add the flu swab to my testing.

I went in the very next morning did my lab work and swab. I went and seen my Dr. at 4pm the same day for my results. My swab was negative but I did have an infection. So I went home and called my boss to let my charge nurse know that I would be out for 3 days. I went on to tell her that my swab was negative for the flu and she stated that she already knew and that my boss told her to look up my record to see if I had it done. She knew my test results without me even telling her. She also knew I had bacteria in my urine so she looked at other results beyond just my flu swab. I was not happy to say the least.

I went back to work after my 3 days and decided to talk with my boss regarding this. She said yes she told her and that she can look up my results herself at any time. I told her she has no rights to my medical records and now I do not feel safe at my own workplace. She said she would talk to my charge nurse. I feel like someone should have a talk with her too. I really am upset with this whole situation to say the least. They violated my privacy. Do I have rights as an employee?

My charge nurse should have been called in to the room and told in front of me that any disclosure of my medical records would be grounds for immediate termination. I have no knowledge how much of my medical history she seen. This is bad, bad, bad. Please give me input, advice. I am wrong for feeling like they had no right.

41 Answers

Totally out of line. It's not even remotely in question that your privacy was invaded. HIPAA guidelines were broken. We would be fired on the spot had we done this and rightfully so.

You should document this in writing ASAP. If you want to sue you should call a lawyer and let them advise you. If you want to handle this within the company you should file an official complaint with the CEO, HR, the Legal Dept, Risk Management, the head of nursing, etc. Be firm in what you wish to see happen here...additional training, suspension, firing, etc.

Your computer system should be able to record who was in and out of your medical file. This is how they often catch those going through celeb files so chances are whoever did it is caught red handed and it might go behyond 1 or 2 people doing it. They will be mad but I wouldn't give a flying fig. HOW DARE THEY DO THIS. And they do know better. They were nosy and showed a blatant disregard for your privacy. I'd be LIVID.

Specializes in Community, OB, Nursery.

I do not think they were within their rights as employees of that hospital to look up your information at your private doctors' office....even if that doctor has privileges at the hospital where you work.

That is a HUGE violation and where I work they would likely be terminated.

A big violation. You do have to disclose health information most of the time to become employed, but you have to release this info. I wonder if you signed some kind of release when you became an employee? You should find out if you did sign such a thing. That's the only way I can imagine them having a right to the info. What's next? Them looking up the results of your STD screen from your gyno????

So sorry. I would feel violated too.

How about contacting the CEO's office and filing a complaint with him, I think that's what I would do.

If you only complain to your manager, it's going to stop right there, she's the one that is in violation, even if you complained to the DON it might stop right there too.

Go outside of nursing and complain.

Specializes in Emergency Medicine.

I am NOT a lawyer...

But, They have taken advantage of their position in healthcare and violated your rights. Grey area here if you had an infectious process that would possibly cause harm to other patients and staff but they could have requested medical clearance from another source.

I would ask clarification from a 3rd party. NOT your facility, NOT the risk management officer. A lawyer perhaps, maybe the Office of Civil Rights.

Specializes in Peds/Neo CCT,Flight, ER, Hem/Onc.

I'm not even allowed to look at MY OWN results without a signed release much less look at anyone else's. Get thee to Human Resources and file a complaint, you have no idea what other private info of yours they looked at. What if you had something intensely personal in your records. I must warn you that there will probably be fall-out at your job but this is inexcusable and illegal.

Specializes in EMS, ER, GI, PCU/Telemetry.

I think your privacy was definately violated.

They should have asked you to provide record that the swab was done and what the results were---but they had no business going into your chart to see if it was done.

A nurse on my floor was admitted to the ICU a few months ago and few people got caught accessing her records (our computer flags all people who view the chart of any patient and they do random audits) and they were terminated.

Even when you are a patient in our hospital and you work there, you can't view your own chart without facing termination!

I wish you the best, this is a sticky situation.. It may be a he said/she said thing when it comes down to it since your supervisor was involved. I hope you feel better soon.

Specializes in ED, LTC, ICU.

I would be devastated if that happened to me....Yup..they both violated HIPPA..those are grounds for termination..they had no right looking into your medical records at all.... I would take legal action and yes... involve the CEO of the hospital..

Specializes in Med/Surg, Ortho, ASC.

HUGE violation. Please do not let this pass without reporting it. HR is the place to start. Then, personally speaking, I would hire an attorney.

If you plan to continue working there and don't wish to rock the boat, give some thought to how you will feel in the future, knowing that the manager had no qualms about researching your private health information and would likely do it again.

If this is the only hospital in town I would ask to meet with the staff involved, including the occupational health nurse (if there is one), human resources, and senior managment. I would let them know that the behaviour was a violation of hippa and could result in fines, termination and litigation. I would explain that I do not want to pursue this type of action but instead want a policy to be developed and mandatory hippa training sessions be provided to staff to prevent this from happening in the future.

Specializes in NICU, Post-partum.

Yes, you have the same rights as any other patient.

I would report it to the Director of Nursing.

I would not mess around with that.

She may have "just" been looking up that information on you...or she may be scanning employees personal medical records on a regular basis.

She'll be lucky if she still has her job after you file a complaint.

HR is not really the place to start -- part of the HIPAA rules is that every facility is required to have a HIPAA compliance officer, someone whose job it is to make sure the hospital and its employees are not violating the act, and that is the person you should start with. I agree this is a big-time violation, and I have seen people get fired for similar behavior. If you don't get satisfaction from the facility's HIPAA compliance officer, then you can file a complaint with the feds.

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