HIPAA Violation?

[Morguein]

Hello. I hope someone can help me with this. I am confused about the whole HIPAA thing. Everything I learned at work about HIPAA was about not revealing a patient's name, room number, their address, phone number, or anything specific like that along with their diagnosis, etc... I did a dumb thing and posted something on my Facebook page about the day we had at work with a patient. I did not mention a name or describe the patient or anything like that. I was told by one of my coworkers that some of the other coworkers became upset by it and may go to management. So, I promptly deleted it. I didn't realize that it was wrong. My page is private, but I do have people from work on it. Can someone tell me what the law is regarding this. Everything I have read about HIPAA only talks about the obvious violations; but nothing about situations involving talking about something that happened at work without using personal information like names, etc... I'd appreciate any information regarding this. Thank you.

[P-medic2RN]

a good rule of thumb is never ever talk about work in a public forum. you never know who might be out to get you. there are snakes in the grass everywhere.

[Emergency RN]

To the OP, a FB page is hardly "private" as you are not the only one with access to it. The danger here is that your best friend or co-worker can also turn out to be your worse legal nightmare. Like the first respondent highlighted, mixing work and FB is a sure fire formula for employment or professional woe.

If the urge to engage in gossip becomes so compelling that one cannot get peace unless one talks about something, my suggestion is to talk about something inconsequential, like a television show's plot. Talking about last night's patient, especially on line, is just a high professional risk habit that should be avoided.

[AlabamaBelle]

This has been addressed by our unit management, reminding us to be careful about what we post.

You'll see the "please let me get through my last 12 in a four day stretch" or "have we been busy or what???" More often, we try to acknowledge our peers who have had a bad shift (really busy pt, bad code with bad outcome) and let others know we appreciated all the teamwork of the day when there aren't nearly enough of us to go around.

I have seen some pictures posted by some of my coworkers that I thought were inappropriate - out partying - things I just couldn't/wouldn't post. My pics tend to be family oriented.

I tend to stray on the cautious side.

[Ruby Vee, BSN]

to the op, a fb page is hardly "private" as you are not the only one with access to it. the danger here is that your best friend or co-worker can also turn out to be your worse legal nightmare. like the first respondent highlighted, mixing work and fb is a sure fire formula for employment or professional woe.

if the urge to engage in gossip becomes so compelling that one cannot get peace unless one talks about something, my suggestion is to talk about something inconsequential, like a television show's plot. talking about last night's patient, especially on line, is just a high professional risk habit that should be avoided.

i've even gotten into trouble for talking about a television show's plot! believe it or not! a colleague and i were standing in the hallway talking about a tv character's new diagnosis of hiv and speculating on how she might have gotten it. a family member overheard us, misinterpreted the conversation and went straight to the manager to complain about how insensitive we were to discuss a patient's hiv status "right out in public like that!". since the colleague i was speaking to was an assistant nurse manager, i wasn't in trouble. but i still had to go apologize to the patient's family member and try to explain the situation. she flat out called me a liar, wouldn't speak to me for the rest of her husband's 4 or 4 month stay on our unit and bad mouthed me to other families. all that carrying on and the internet wasn't even involved. think about how much more trouble i could get into if i were posting it on facebook!

if you must talk about last night's patient, disguise the name, gender, diagnosis and time frame in which you encountered the patient. you guys don't really think i know so many people named "hortense", "gertrude", "bertha" or "lucretia", do you?

[Ruby Vee, BSN]

this has been addressed by our unit management, reminding us to be careful about what we post.

you'll see the "please let me get through my last 12 in a four day stretch" or "have we been busy or what???" more often, we try to acknowledge our peers who have had a bad shift (really busy pt, bad code with bad outcome) and let others know we appreciated all the teamwork of the day when there aren't nearly enough of us to go around.

i have seen some pictures posted by some of my coworkers that i thought were inappropriate - out partying - things i just couldn't/wouldn't post. my pics tend to be family oriented.

i tend to stray on the cautious side.

a former colleague of mine posted a picture of herself streaking. other photos had her wearing a t shirt with the name of our hospital for all the world to see. gee, i wonder why she no longer works there?!

[Morguein]

I definitely need to be more on the cautious side. I am used to speaking my mind on my page and expressing my frustrations, etc... But I guess that's pretty dumb huh? I've learned a lot in just the past couple days here. Wow, even discussing a TV show can get you in trouble. I can see how that situation turned into the monster it did. It sounds like a total misunderstanding gone wrong. I feel bad that you had to go through that Ruby. It seems like every conversation and written word is potentially up for public scrutiny, interpretation, and the perception of others.

[klone, MSN, RN]

Speaking of HIPAA, what about nurses' blogs where they talk about cases they've participated?

I remember a few years back someone sent me a link to an L&D nurse's blog where she talked about cases she had. One entry she even posted images of the fetal monitor strips from a case (since that's property of the hospital, wouldn't that constitute theft?). I remember her blog entries were always kind of mocking of her patients. I always thought that was so unprofessional and stupid risky.

[nursel56]

There are quite a few long running nurse's blogs, and the tone of many of them would make our worst vents and rants look like an episode of the Care Bears. Most manage to avoid HIPAA violations by deliberately creating composites and fuzzing up their location. Posting rhythm strips would be a really dumb thing to do.

To be honest, I think with a little sleuthing you can figure out a lot of identifying factors, and if a super-scrupulous employer or a not-so-good friend of the blogger cared to, they could bust the blogger.

Many doc bloggers do the same thing, and most have so far managed to avoid the glaciers that loom ahead. A well known doc blogger train wreck occured a few years ago when a pediatrician blogging under the pseudonym "FLEA" actually blogged about the lawsuit he was involved in- in real time!! :uhoh21: The counsel for the Plaintiff created a big Perry Mason moment by unmasking "FLEA" in the courtroom- and Flea is the prevailing cautionary tale in Medblog world.

For me, the stakes are just too high to risk it, though I've been sorely tempted! I know all of us have those days when we would pay some serious money just to be able to write about those stranger than fiction days we have as healthcare workers- whoo-eee!

[rn/writer, RN]

For all the technical sophistication people possess these days, some of them can be amazingly naive.

So many don't get the concept that once something is out there, it's out there. You might erase scandalous pictures, but who else has a copy?

And it isn't only employers or nursing boards one might have to answer to. I shudder to think what some rowdy folks are someday going to have to try to explain to their kids.

[Morguein]

For all the technical sophistication people possess these days, some of them can be amazingly naive.

So many don't get the concept that once something is out there, it's out there. You might erase scandalous pictures, but who else has a copy?

And it isn't only employers or nursing boards one might have to answer to. I shudder to think what some rowdy folks are someday going to have to try to explain to their kids.

Yeah, that's me; naive. Not anymore though. At least, with this subject. I'm thankful that I have never had any crazy pictures on my page; but I did take some of them down just in case someone else might think they are.

[Morguein]

I've noticed that we can't delete any of our own blogs. Does anyone know why? I went through all of my posts to make sure they were "okay" and didn't need to delete any of them; but If I had wanted to, I would not have been able to anyway.

[traumaRUs, MSN, APRN]

AN prefers not to delete posts unless there is a solid reason to do so.

However, each case is handled individually. If you have an issue with something you posted, please post to the admin forum where only the admin staff and the original poster can see. Its the word "help" in the right upper corner of each page.