HIPAA Violation? Article about nurses caring for Tsarnaev.

tewdles, RN · May 20, 2013

Are you wondering if the entire article is a HIPAA violation?

I will admit that I quickly perused the article and did not read it closely, but at first blush I don't feel that this is discusses any private personal information.

Did I miss anything that would suggest otherwise?

StNeotser, ASN, RN · May 21, 2013

I did wonder about that. The only two occasions that I took care of someone "high profile" (and they weren't really) we were told if the press contacted us that we should give them the name of a certain PR person.

If it were me, honestly I would say nothing because I don't know if any information at all is enough to violate HIPAA. That and personally even if there were no HIPAA, I feel patients business is their own whoever they are.

Garethaus · May 21, 2013

I think probably the whole story is a fabrication courtesy of the writer Liz Kowalczyk. For all the yakking about patient confidentiality, these allegedly anonymous nurses seem pretty free talking to the journos. No apparent worries about deregistration?

allnurses Guide · May 21, 2013

I read nurses talking about their caring for him as they would any patient. The description of care was generic for any injured critical care patient.

It is no secret that he was injured and hospitalized. No protected medical information was devulged.

We are the most trusted profession because people know that nurses will provide care as best we can to all patients.

allnurses Guide · May 21, 2013

Just kind of gave me the "heebie geebies" . . . . . we KNOW they were talking about him. Maybe not specifically about his injuries but he's in the hospital and they are caring for him. The issue of trying to be anonymous by only giving their middle name by the way . . .how easy is it to find out a person's middle name!

Personally, if someone came to ask if they could interview me about a local celebrity who I cared for in our ER, I would just say no.

wooh, BSN, RN · May 21, 2013

What protected health information was given out?

tewdles, RN · May 22, 2013

I was asked once to get someone onto my unit when a well known national celebrity was visiting his spouse's mother on oncology.

I looked at them and said, "who???" Sorry, I have no idea who that is...

LOL

Elvish, BSN, DNP, RN, NP · May 22, 2013

A person's name and hospital room can be looked up by anyone, unless they specifically ask for privacy restrictions or a prisoner (at least in my state, don't know about others). I wouldn't want to be interviewed by any media either - I declined to be interviewed by a news crew a while back when my floor delivered the first baby of the New Year - but don't see that the nurses did anything wrong.

Garethaus · May 22, 2013

I find it very hard to believe that any nurse would share with a journalist any information about such a currently high profile patient, in such a short frame of time of caring for him.

NutmeggeRN, BSN · May 22, 2013

"During their shifts, the nurses would have monitored Tsarnaev’s breathing, heart rate, and neurological status every one to two hours. They would have checked his wounds for signs of infection, asked about his pain, and administered medications — all standard ICU care."

This was written by the author of the article.

No HIPAA violations of protected info, unless maybe they acknowledged he was there....the whole world knows he is there.

Hats off to them for doing the job they signed on to do-they are professionals and they admit they are not robots.....

I would hope that any nurse would do the same.

allnurses Guide · May 22, 2013

I think they did the right thing about patient care.

But privacy has been hammered into my brain from day one in nursing and this just seemed off to me . .. .to talk about caring for a patient and the unique struggles due to who he is.

Guess it is better to be super-sensitive about this than not . . ..

I've told this story about my own experience with a violation of my privacy but when I had my last child at another hospital with electronic med records, a former colleague saw me and said "I looked up your chart and read what happened".

The stories about medical staff getting into famous patients' med records and talking to the press has been a big deal too.

I'm not arguing . . just saying it still feels "hinky" to me.