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?

[leslie :-D]

i would seriously consider a legal consult (a labor law/employment attorney).

your questions/concerns are very legitimate and are worthy of pursuing answers via an atty.

something seems highly inappropriate (on employers part), and would consider wrongful termination.

i have no idea why a jane doe would be considered hipaa violation.

just something to consider.

best of everything.

leslie

[tvccrn, ASN, RN]

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?

Maybe I'm reading this wrong, but why are you concerned about unemployment from this place if it was two jobs ago and you have just accepted a new position elsewhere?

[ktliz]

If you truly think there was something fishy going on re: the hospital using the incident to "clean house," I wouldn't worry about the impact on future employment. If they just wanted you gone for staffing/budgetary reasons, why would they go out of their way to ruin your reputation as well? And put themselves at risk for a defamation suit along with wrongful termination...

However, this is just my reasoning and I have no knowledge of their actual motivation. I agree that you might benefit from consulting an attorney with specialized knowledge--either employment and/or HIPAA.

Ugh, HIPAA. It's a beast...

[rescugirl]

Thank you so much. I don't know what the people doing background checks are looking for other than a criminal history which I have a clean record. Never receiving anything in print as notification from the people we were put on a list for so we could have proof of ruining our character or a fine due to something, I have never received anything. The termination letter was one paragraph and thrown together on a seperate page and not even signed by my boss, she attached it to a blank form she should have filled out. She even spelled HIPAA wrong as HIPPA. I did not sign it either. It was just very fishy haphazard, she called me at home and asked if I clicked on the folder and I said yes I did but that was all. Then I was scheduled to continue working on the very floor lady had come from, I was made to do baths all morning they had me working all weekend, then they called me in and handed me this paperwork and that was that. My head was spinning because I did not even understand what I did wrong. Why would they keep me working if they were truly afraid I was a true violator of this law, I wasn't.

[Floyd Nightingale]

This is a big problem with electronic charting. It's all too easy to mistakenly click open the wrong chart, or to forget to log out and have someone follow you and chart under your log-in. It happens every day and the antiquated system we use has another flaw that will often open a random chart when a user logs on.

I was questioned about why I was in an employee's chart one time. Apparently she voiced a concern about who had accessed her records and an investigation showed that a large number of people uninvolved in her care had been in there. I told them that I had no memory of being in the chart but I was working triage and part of that job involves keeping track of who is in the area and moving them, or I may have just neglected to log out. That was the last I heard of it but when the employee found out how big an investigation it triggered she regretted bringing it up.

I know of situations where people got into the files of high profile patients and have been disciplined or terminated but if your institution fired that many people without a thorough investigation, you probably don't want to be working for them anyway.

[rescugirl]

I totally agree with what you stated about electronic charting. The lines are very small and it was the last item in the row and I clicked and got back out. In the age of technology we have today it is very simple to put precautions in place by the IS Departments. I know a simple password, using a different tab and different location, even highlighting it in a different color so we were aware. The problem lies first in training second in communication to the employees. Never did I get notifed what a Jane Doe was or received an email on it to say don't go there. All employees should have been notified. You can't expect new people to know all the rules the nurses who have been there for a long time know. There were alot of gray areas.

If you give an employee access to the floor and they are told to work that floor and have access to public folders for those patients they are working with I do not see why it could be considered a HIPAA violation, especially when it was a Jane Doe. I went back and reread there disciplinary actions and there was no notification, I'd never even been written up on anything in the past. My patient care was outstanding. I think a rule needs to be passed that hospitals cannot use the HIPAA law to reduce staffing. It was pretty obvious what they did, but the amoutn of stress it has caused me and worry over my future has been horrible. I am honest as the day is long and have no interest in getting into anyones folder, celebrity or otherwise. Usually you are given a notice of some kind, a write up etc. but they just flat out cleaned house on everyone and I felt their excuses were very weak.

I had set my personal goal as a CNA for a year anyway because I want to move ahead to LVN then RN or higher.

I already have a masters degree and undergrad but they are in Fine Arts and Masters of Education. Healthcare is new to me and I wanted to start at the bottom to know the responsibilites of a CNA, Home Health, Phlebotomist and have been a working EMT all along which is a higher level of care than CNA. The hospital would not let me move into the lab to further my education andf I felt so suppressed as they wanted to keep us from growing. I just hope it does not come up on a background check anywhere and I pray I can move ahead because I love the healthcare field. I have proof it was a Jane Doe and that I only clicked on it one time and the mold and fraud issues that took place at the same time if someone asks me. So far in my new position, I have passed my physical, HR procedures and am scheduled for orientation. I just pray I am not damaged by this one obstacle. I need this job, the bank just approved me for a loan modification this job is everything to me.

Thank you to everyone who has been responding to me here, I feel so much better seeing both sides of this issue. I will be so incredibly careful from this point forward.