HIPAA Violation

Published

I am an RN who has been at the same hospital for over 15 years. I am currently suspended for a HIPAA violation. The reason is I accessed a persons information. The reason I did was because I believed we had seen her in our clinic just recently. If we had seen her she would have most likely had a follow-up appointment scheduled, which I would have asked our schedulers to cancel as the patient is deceased. I had honorable intentions as we have an automated system that calls to remind patients of their appointments. I was trying to prevent her family from getting such a call. She actually had not been seen and as soon as I realized it I looked no further. I did not look at any information on her whatsoever. I simply looked to see if she had been seen in our clinic. Apparently a lot of people looked at her information, as it took 4 ays to come to a decision. This is something that will go on my record. I have never been disciplined for anything in my 15 years of employment. I intend on fighting this as I know in my heart I am innocent. Any advice?

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Specializes in Cardiac Telemetry, Emergency, SAFE.

It seems to me like an honest mistake. You had valid reason to believe she had been seen, and tried to check accordingly.

I dont understand where you say lots of people had accessed the info? Why?

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Specializes in chemical dependency detox/psych.

Wow, that's tough. If everything is as you state, I guess that it's one of those, "let no good deed go unpunished." Good luck clearing your name.

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Specializes in Gerontology.

I'm a little unclear as to how you happened to see this person's information? Why would her name come up? And shouldn't you be using 2 things to identify someone before you go into the chart - we use name and unique pt number - so if you saw that only 1 item matched you would know that if wasn't the correct pt.

I can understand your intentions, but you still went into a chart you had no right to go in. As they say,the road to hell is paved with good intentions.

Finally,at our hospital if you do access a chart that you shouldn't, you can notify someone right away, which shows you are aknowleding your mistake and they will make note of it.

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Specializes in Med/Surg, Ortho, ASC.

I'm not sure we have the whole story....why were so many others accessing th deceased's information? And how did you come to know that she was deceased?

Was this person a well-known person in your community? That would explain why "alot" of people were looking @ the patient info and would also explain how you knew about the death.

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Hi profile case. Which is another reason I am innocent. I knew her name would be flagged, and tracked on the computer. I am not ignorant, I would have never accessed her name if I didn't believe I had a legitimate reason. In addition I still state I didn't look at ANY information on her. Just that we had not seen her in our clinic.

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Specializes in O.R., ED, M/S.

Whatever state you are from, certain Federal and State guidlines went into effect at the first of the year. They are coming down very hard on HIPPA violations. What you did is in reality a firing offense and you should feel lucky all you got was a suspension. New rules are taking no prisoners and making examples of all. Hospitals are being fined very harsh on these violations and they HAVE to report themselves and all who are guilty. This is a no "slap on the hand" offense. Check out this on the HIPPA site and check with your facility for the rules. There are no innocents when this happens and they take no excuses. Good luck though.

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Specializes in Med/Surg, Ortho, ASC.

"They are coming down very hard on HIPPA violations.

"Check this out on the HIPPA site"

HIPAA

H.I.P.A.A.

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It is my understanding that under HIPAA, all providers are on a "need to know" basis- any information they need to know to do their job, they can get- but aren't allowed to access anything beyond that.

Your explanation doesn't make any sense. Apparently, you were accessing the patients information to make sure the family didn't get a reminder phone call about her appointment? That's awfully nice of you, but, frankly, not your job. Also, you were looking for a previous appointment in your clinic, which means you had to look at every appointment she had in the previous weeks or months. Despite your "good" intentions, you violated HIPAA.

My advice- hope you don't get fired, or fined, or arrested. The HIPAA penalties are severe.

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Specializes in ICU, ER, EP,.

I am sorry you did violate HIPPA, no matter what your intentions were. I instead would show the understanding of the error of my ways, be very humble and pray that this stops at suspension.

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Specializes in Med/Surg, Ortho, ASC.
I am sorry you did violate HIPPA, no matter what your intentions were. I instead would show the understanding of the error of my ways, be very humble and pray that this stops at suspension.

Good idea. You probably need to stop declaring innocence since the issue is so clearcut. Your computer fingerprint is on the chart in question. End of story.

Express understanding of the issue and fall on your sword. In my facility, this would be an automatic dismissal, but maybe not in yours.

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sad.

On the other hand, I keep getting asthma brochures from my darn insurance company who thinks the kids have asthma because one of the ER people listed it... go figure.

On the one hand, I understand HIPAA -- on the other hand, stories like this make the system look absolutely LAME LAME LAME.

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