Hippa violation?

Nurses HIPAA

Published

I frequently lurk here but seldom post. I have a question. Should I report a fellow nurse for a hippa violation?

Here is what happened. I have ovarian cancer. I was at the Cancer Center yesterday to have blood work drawn from my port. The RN who drew my blood (in a private enclosed room) was a nurse I worked with about 20 years ago. She started to tell me about all the nurses she has taken care of at the cancer center: naming them by name and disease. She named 3 nurses when I stopped her and asked about hippa. She stated that this is just chatter and doesn't count.

When I got home and had more time to think about this, I wondered what she is telling other people about me. I hate to report a fellow nurse, but I feel she really violated confidentiality. Should I just give a heads up to her manager? Your thoughts would be appreciated.

Thanks.

Specializes in Psych, Med/Surg, Home Health, Oncology.

Hi

I think you should definitely report this nurse. You tried to do something & it was obvious she just didn't GET it!! She certainly needs extra HIPPA training.

Report her to the manager & I think also the Risk Manager! If need be, maybe even higher up the chain of command!

Specializes in LTC, CPR instructor, First aid instructor..

The first thing that came to my mind was: If she told you that stuff, details and all, how many other people has she told as well. This is definitely a HIPPA violation, and I too feel the nurse manager should be told, and suggest that a HIPPA refresher course be created. That way, maybe someone's very private and confidential business won't be spread all over who knows where. :rolleyes:

Yes....You should.I speak from experience too.........I was a patient after a work injury and I basically had my private health info given to everyone at my hospital.it is an invasion of privacy for those pts she told you about.Imagine that shes going to keep quiet about you??????Probably not.Unless you were providing DIRECT care to that patient you had NO need to be informed they were even patients by this person.REPORT REPORT!!!!

Specializes in Critical Care.

I agree with the rest. Report it. You know this was inapproppriate even before hippa.

Noney

Specializes in Case Mgmt; Mat/Child, Critical Care.

I agree, this definitely needs to be reported! I was in a similar situation about 1 1/2 yrs ago....my nurse manager was having conversations about a health issue I was having, w/other nurses; she admitted this to my face! I essentially told her my health concerns were not hers or anybody else's business...(this was not in any way affecting my job). They were just gossipping! I was so mad. To this day I wish I had reperted her. This was about 6 mos before the actual initiation of HIPPA, but it was still a violation of confidentiality.

Report this nurse. These types need to be stopped...and they won't just do it on their own! :angryfire

Specializes in Vents, Telemetry, Home Care, Home infusion.

This post is even a timely reminder for myself in my nurse manager role.

I've had three personal out sick in the past two months. Everyone asks "how are they, whats the problem, when will they be back?" It's hard to keep things private when you've sent someone to the hospital from the office!

Some of it is natural curiosity, other times it's because they've worked with the person 10 + years and care about the individual. One person has been out 2 1/2 months from a key postion and the absence is making a huge impact on how my department interacts with others as they had such an eagle eye, they picked up on one's minor errors and corrected them before it affected other departments. Saying "I can't talk about it" has been hard at times. But keeping staff's health information private has been paramont in my mind these days.

Please report your concern to nursing management. You will be helping to prevent another person from breach of confidentiatliy. As a manager, one can't do anything about a situation, if you don't know it's occuring.

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