HIPAA Help?

[slou!]

I am an ex-nursing student (I was a nursing student for 2 years but changed it to special education, that's another whole story :)) but if I learned anything in nursing school, it's how strict the HIPAA laws are.

Someone was telling me a story about someone THEY know (confusing already.) and they said this nurse, we'll call her Jaime, was at hospital where someone famous was, we'll call him George. Well Jaime wasn't George's nurse directly, so she feels she can tell everyone what George was in the hospital for, how he was acting, etc etc etc. My friend told me Jaime isn't violating HIPAA at all because she isn't his nurse.

That just screams violation to me. I feel really bad for George about this. He is in the hospital and his personal information is getting leaked. If you can't trust nurses, who are professionals, who can you trust? It's just sad.

[EmmaG, RN]

Yep, that's a violation.

It's all pretty simple when you get right down to it.

MYOB.

[SummerGarden, BSN, MSN, RN]

Hopefully George sues the hospital and the hospital fires Jaime. This way your friend and others will see that Jaime was in violation of HIPAA. GL.

[caliotter3]

Jaime is out of touch with reality if she thinks that her gossip is not a violation of HIPAA. Should this get back to the hospital she could (and should) be disciplined up to the point of getting fired. She is more likely to get fired because it involves a famous person who is more likely to sue her employer.

[YellowFinchFan]

Jaime is out of touch with reality if she thinks that her gossip is not a violation of HIPAA. Should this get back to the hospital she could (and should) be disciplined up to the point of getting fired. She is more likely to get fired because it involves a famous person who is more likely to sue her employer.

Exactly! At my current hospital and prob all others they actually can 'track' if you sign on to a pt not yours (snooping) etc. How unprofessional that nurse is to tell people about this patient.

When I was a nursing student years ago I took care of a famous person's spouse who died in the few days I cared for her (cancer)

I kept my mouth shut about it then and years later I finally told my husband who was quite impressed I met this famous man (of course at a very sad time in his life)

I treated my patient, the famous man and their children with the same dignity I treat all my patients, and the same privacy duty too.

[autumleaves]

Yep, that's a violation.

It's all pretty simple when you get right down to it.

MYOB.

Ditto

[CHATSDALE]

this was really horrible, she should not have said anything to anybody about the patient

this is a license flushing siituation

i wonder if any of the people she talked to were nurses?? wouldn't they be obligated to report to hospital??

[feebebe23]

I know this isn't the same thing.....

A famous football player was taken to the ER from a game....his computer medical records were opened by over 350+ employees. They couldn't fire that many.....but they fired about 30....

[caliotter3]

What a feeding frenzy there would have been at the hospital where 350 people looked at the medical records of a football player if the hospital had only fired all of them. They could have fired them in groups. The local staffing agencies could have benefitted and many unemployed people with better scruples could have found employment!