HIPAA Violation-Jane Doe

[rescugirl]

I have a question about Hipaa and Jane Does. I was an unlicensed CNA on a new electronic program which we had been using maybe two months. I was new to it and still learning. I volunteered to help out when someone didn't show up to work and was put on another floor. In the morning I was told I would be switching in the afternoon with the other CNA on the floor, so as I was trained I moved my patients to my tab for the day. One of the patients was listed as a Jane Doe it was the last one in the row. I accidentally clicked on it one time and closed it back out. I had no prior knowledge of this patient, their situation or what a Jane Doe was. No one received any information at our compliance meeting about Jane Does or what they stood for nor was there anything listed in the employee manual. 12 nurses lost their jobs over this folder. No one was allowed to receive unemployment, we were told our names would be put on a list for the state. To this day I do not know who this person is or was nor did I go into the electronic file to find out. I found out even the monitor techs who were inputting information on the patient doing their daily normal procedure were fired and denied unemployment.

After speaking with HR, I was told my name would be put on the list, if I went for another job all they could tell them was the dates I worked at the hospital.HR cannot tell us what list it is we are put on, I have never received any documentation of what list it is, no fines, no further correspondance about this. I would never have knowingly violated Hipaa, I had just received a raise. I've checked every list I can find for HIPAA and hospitals with fines and they are not on any lists.

The week before they had to close down a building for mold and had way too many employees.

Our local hospital was under fire for a medicare fraud lawsuit and had to settle for the violations, they also were going through JACO evaluations for months while I was working there.

Will this show up on a background check? I have accepted a new position at a higher level and am now licensed in various other areas, does anyone know if I am forever doomed from employment? This was two jobs ago, last September. They used HIPAA to clean house and reduce employee population, is it still a HIPAA violation to click back out if you clicked accidentally?

[flashpoint]

Our new software will allow IT to determine how long we were in an unauthorized chart and what we viewed when we were there. I don't think they can actually see what is in the record, just that "Mary" was logged in for ten minutes and viewed the vital sign and task pages. It seems odd that if you clicked in and clicked right out that they had any concerns about a HIPAA violation.

I do know that once our EMR is up and running that we are to report to our supervisor immediately if we unintentionally access a record that we are not supposed to access. That could be part of the problem.

I really think a lot of facilities go overboard because they are so concerned about HIPAA. One of the local clinics won't give information like lab results if the patient calls and asks for them…their policy mandates that the clinic call them. I also know of a clinic that won't call a patient's name when they are ready to take them back to an exam room…they simply hold up a colored card that matches the card they are given when they check in.

[belgarion]

Did you learn who Jane Doe was? Did you tell anyone what you might have seen? This sounds like it was a HIPAA violation only in the minds of the administration. However, you really need to seek legal advice since something like this could seriously bite you in the butt years down the road.

[rescugirl]

No I do not know who she is, she was sensitive to the hospital but I was not aware of what was going on, I was just doing my job and was on the floor that day and Jane Doe was in the public folders with everyone on my floor and no one notified me anything about this. I asked the hospital why it was not on a seperate tab, password protected or even a paper folder handled among just the specific nurses designated to deal with that patient. They had no answer.

No I never talked to anyone about it, but learned months after the fact when I ran into the ER tech how they lost their jobs and they were inputting the information in as they were supposed to do from the monitors as usual.

They just took it too far and in such a small hospital there is no way 12 nurses would do this. Everyone I met there were very hard working dedicated people. No one had time to be doing anything, we worked with barely a break. We had no union it was a private hospital also.

How can you violate HIPAA if there is no name associated and it is a generic folder? There is no intent to go in it for any reason, nothing was hooked up to a printer it was a satelite station.

If they keep me from getting employment, would this be considered defamation of character? Also, I have never received anything on this not one piece of paper as a followup, no notifications and it's been since last September. I am going for a completely different job but am so scared it will prevent me from employment in my career. I am completely and honestly background free in my entire career until I took a low level CNA job and was not informed properly about what this was.

I did ask one attorney but he really didn't have any answers for me. I have gone on and have been working all along without any problems so far but I don't even know who to talk to to get this resolved. I did not file a greivance as I was not aware that was something I needed to do eother until I was turned down from unemployment. I have never been fired in my entire life and have 2 degrees in other areas where I handled clients like the department of defense and airforce base info etc. I would never breach security.

[JB2007, ASN, RN]

Just paranoid people going overboard like they do oh so often anymore. Don't they realize how easy it is to click on the wrong name.

[rescugirl]

They were totally overboard but it was orchestrated so well. Why would they bring in a high priced attorney, HR and the Director to an unemployment hearing. All high priced people, we were lined up and processed one hearing after the other in EDD. No one got unemployment. They had it down to an art, all over a 12.30 an hour job, in a city I knew no one since I just moved here. This person was not a celebrity or anyone of interest to the worker bee.

[tokmom, BSN, RN]

Makes you wonder if Jane Doe really existed at all.

[mizfradd, CNA]

our new software will allow it to determine how long we were in an unauthorized chart and what we viewed when we were there. i don't think they can actually see what is in the record, just that "mary" was logged in for ten minutes and viewed the vital sign and task pages. it seems odd that if you clicked in and clicked right out that they had any concerns about a hipaa violation.

i do know that once our emr is up and running that we are to report to our supervisor immediately if we unintentionally access a record that we are not supposed to access. that could be part of the problem.

i really think a lot of facilities go overboard because they are so concerned about hipaa. one of the local clinics won't give information like lab results if the patient calls and asks for them...their policy mandates that the clinic call them. i also know of a clinic that won't call a patient's name when they are ready to take them back to an exam room...they simply hold up a colored card that matches the card they are given when they check in.

oh good grief, pretty soon it'll come down to this:

[rescugirl]

Yes she did, I found out later she was an employee from another floor and department but I never had met her or knew her name, never worked with her or under her. I think the hospital got paranoid she might sue them for some reason. But they used the folder to get rid of people above and beyond what HIPAA should be used for. There were nurses in another department who had gone into that folder and another nurse admitted she had gone in as well and LVN and was never terminated for doing so, they were under different management.

[rescugirl]

Great comic!!!

[Jenni811, RN]

Love the Comic :)

[tokmom, BSN, RN]

Sounds like you are better off being gone from this place.