HIPAA question - The Neighbor

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Specializes in PICU, NICU, L&D, Public Health, Hospice.

So here is a HIPAA question...

You are a nurse who visits in the patient home.

You exit the home and are confronted by the neighbor who asks you "how is Mabel today, she seemed a bit under the weather last night during our card game"?

What do you do?

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"Oh how lovely of you to ask! And I am sure Mabel would be appreciate of it too! Why don't you stop by and see her or give her a call!! Nice to see you Ms. Neighbor, I am off to go to my next assignment...."

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"Oh how lovely of you to ask! And I am sure Mabel would be appreciate of it too! Why don't you stop by and see her or give her a call!! Nice to see you Ms. Neighbor, I am off to go to my next assignment...."

Exactly.

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Specializes in PICU, NICU, L&D, Public Health, Hospice.

Geez, that wasn't hard at all. I'll try to think of a harder one...

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Specializes in Critical Care, ED, Cath lab, CTPAC,Trauma.
"Oh how lovely of you to ask! And I am sure Mabel would be appreciate of it too! Why don't you stop by and see her or give her a call!! Nice to see you Ms. Neighbor, I am off to go to my next assignment...."

Perfect.

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Specializes in ER, ICU.

I would say, "if I was coming out of your house, would you like me to fill in the neighbors on what was going on?"

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I actually had this happen to me, almost word for word, not 2 weeks ago! I said something similar to "Why don't you stop in & ask her?" These people (a couple) just repeated the question. So I repeated the suggestion to stop in & ask her.

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Specializes in Geriatric/Sub Acute, Home Care.

Yes, be pleasant and avoid giving out information because Mrs. Neighbor may be just a busy body too looking to gossip. You never know who your patient has a good relationship with or not. Good to find out that information too about who your patient bothers with and who comes to visit. If your patient has her as a visitor, she can always tell her Or not how she is doing. Its her privacy. Sometimes in small communities where everyone knows your name, its hard to keep information under wraps, but informing them nicely about their patients privacy is the best way.

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