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What would you do in this situation:
You are taking care of a patient and a lady claiming to be his daughter calls on the phone to see how the patient is and what is going on with him. What do you say? BTW the patient in this scenario is asleep.
Do you answer her questions, what do you do? Would it go against HIPAA if you do??
Help!! Any help would be great!!
It's hard to believe anyone would even question your actions, Tweety. You're right on! Especially with HIPPA!
I couldn't believe it either! I felt like I was in the twilight zone when the other nurses were like "you should have just told her what she wanted to know". I explained to them that HIPAA is a law. I can lose my job, or even be personally sued...that I didn't know about them, but I am not about to ever lose my livelihood over some nosy family member!
Today I checked our policies and procedures and in plain english it states that we are not to give ANY pt info over the telephone or we risk being terminated! So now I hope that that woman complains about me, so I can present this problem to our management! Maybe we need to enact that password thing...or direct all calls to one family spokesperson. Not give their phone number out, but tell the callers to call Mary (or whoever) for any info. Honestly, I don't have time to be talking to anyone over the phone while at work. I don't have enough time for my allotted breaks!
Havin' A Party!, ASN, RN
2,722 Posts
Daytonite -- Don't think I can agree with the procedure you've outlined based on my impression of HIPAA.
Hope it works for you.