HIPAA.... violation or not....

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I am a nursing student. During class I mentioned a first and middle name of a pt in class but did not give any information that I knew it from the hospital setting. All I said is a woman named her child ___ ____. Its a small town and it was one students niece which she stated in class and then went and filed a HIPPA complaint to the woman over the program. I was kicked out of the program for this. Is there anything I can do to fight this??? I need some serious help!!!!

Go to an attorney and have them draft a nice little letter to the school, you will be back in the program in no time.....will cost you a few hundred bucks but worth it

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Specializes in CCU, SICU, CVSICU, Precepting & Teaching.

if you were mocking the child's name, as others have suggested, that was inappropriate. while expulsion may seem harsh, i have no idea what else has been going on. could this have been the straw that broke the camel's back?

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Specializes in Critical Care.
Yes it is a violation of the baby. The fact you stated their name is violation, even though you didn't share information. This would be no different then be going to someone after work and saying

"Hey Sally Sue is in the hospital. she was my patient. But i can't share anymore than that."

^What if "sally sue" didn't want that information shared with anyone? Violation!!!!!!! i DID share information about "sally sue" i shared she was in the hospital.

Revealing that someone is in the hospital is not actually a HIPAA violation. HIPAA allows for providers to reveal who is there are what their general status is (IE "critical"). A HIPAA violation occurs when a patient identifier (such as a name) is combined with protected health information, and the fact that someone was in the hospital is not protected, and in most jurisdictions that fact that you had a live birth is not protected either.

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Specializes in Critical Care, ED, Cath lab, CTPAC,Trauma.
Revealing that someone is in the hospital is not actually a HIPAA violation. HIPAA allows for providers to reveal who is there are what their general status is (IE "critical"). A HIPAA violation occurs when a patient identifier (such as a name) is combined with protected health information, and the fact that someone was in the hospital is not protected, and in most jurisdictions that fact that you had a live birth is not protected either.

Actually you can't reveal if someone is a patient without their permission. When you are admitted you sign papers for treatment and HIPAA to release your information to your insurance for billing along with your signature the ask you to initial if you want it known/released that you are a patient. As a supervisor, when the media calls, if I have no signatures of release, depending on the situation, I either deny that we have any one with that name, or I acknowledge that a patient (no name given) has been seen for xyz incident and they are either 1) being evaluated or 2) xyz condition and that is only after checking with the risk management/PR people before ANYTHING is released to the press.

It's a debated subject to be sure but to be safe your name and condition cannot be released unless expressed permission has been given. Yes in some (most) states/counties birth certificates are public record,but that's not how she found out the babies name. I agree that I think expulsion is extreme....but she was wrong in what she did.

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Specializes in Critical Care.
Actually you can't reveal if someone is a patient without their permission. When you are admitted you sign papers for treatment and HIPAA to release your information to your insurance for billing along with your signature the ask you to initial if you want it known/released that you are a patient. As a supervisor, when the media calls, if I have no signatures of release, depending on the situation, I either deny that we have any one with that name, or I acknowledge that a patient (no name given) has been seen for xyz incident and they are either 1) being evaluated or 2) xyz condition and that is only after checking with the risk management/PR people before ANYTHING is released to the press.

It's a debated subject to be sure but to be safe your name and condition cannot be released unless expressed permission has been given. Yes in some (most) states/counties birth certificates are public record,but that's not how she found out the babies name. I agree that I think expulsion is extreme....but she was wrong in what she did.

In terms of HIPAA, you can reveal if someone is a patient at your hospital without their explicit permission. Many hospitals may require specific permission, but it's not part of HIPAA.

The policy at my hospital (which is HIPAA compliant) is that your name and condition will be shared unless you specifically request "do not announce" status (they don't sign anything to approve this). There are some situations where we classify them automatically as DNA unless they state otherwise, such as drug OD and violent crime victims, but other than that we disclose that information without any form of explicit permission from the patient.

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Specializes in Critical Care, ED, Cath lab, CTPAC,Trauma.

I am positive your hospital is HIPAA compliant as violations came be very expensive and include the loss of government funding.....and I'm not trying to have an arguement. Speaking as a patient every facility that I have been admitted to has you sign, upon admission along with permission to treat and bill the insurance, to be apart of a the hospital roster/census so name, room, condition can be released making permission granted. I know as an administrator what I advise and have been advised about violations ans which cases ahve stood up in court.

I have heard this point argued amongst risk management and there are different intrepretations of the regulations as the regulation itself is contradictory to itself (shocking I know considering it's from the government :)) It also depends on individual policy.........If the policy states that to release the information without expressed permission, she's still responsible. I think she should have kept the gossip to herself. I guess it's just good policy to not talk about patients outside the clinical setting.....Peace :)

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Specializes in Critical Care; Cardiac; Professional Development.

I too am wondering the rest of the story. It seems there has to be something else going on here - either there are other errors/warnings/instances that the OP has earned or the method in which the name was revealed was blatantly disrespectful or gossipy somehow.....or something. It seems very strange to me that someone would get expelled from the entire program based on this one thing alone. If that is indeed the case, the OP should stop discussing it on the Internet and seek an appeal of the decision.

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Specializes in family practice.

Ok seems everybody seems to know much about HIPAA. I do have a question though regarding this and since we are on the topic

How does one really know when HIPAA has been violated. It is such a broad and vague topic that my head cant quite place it

A patient is admitted (does not submit any names of those who can be informed). Someone calls, i want to speak to Jane Doe who is in rm 1000, and he/she gets transferred. The patient gets angry because she didnt want this person to know she was in the hospital. Is this HIPAA violation? Can the nurse really get reprimanded for this. How would you tell the person to the person is not there without running the risk of getting another family member (who knows the person is there) angry

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Specializes in Critical Care, ED, Cath lab, CTPAC,Trauma.
Ok seems everybody seems to know much about HIPAA. I do have a question though regarding this and since we are on the topic

How does one really know when HIPAA has been violated. It is such a broad and vague topic that my head cant quite place it

A patient is admitted (does not submit any names of those who can be informed). Someone calls, i want to speak to Jane Doe who is in rm 1000, and he/she gets transferred. The patient gets angry because she didnt want this person to know she was in the hospital. Is this HIPAA violation? Can the nurse really get reprimanded for this. How would you tell the person to the person is not there without running the risk of getting another family member (who knows the person is there) angry

If the patient is on the "public roster" or listing of patients which is determined at the time of admission then there is no violation. The patient then needs to be re-informed of her rights and that she can be removed form the "public roster" and events like this will not occur.

But you need to really know what your particular facilities policies are and need to abide by them. I worked at a facility that would acknowledge the patient was in the hospital and without a "code" or password no information was given and no calls were transfered into rooms without the password, they had to be direct dialed. This did unfortunately place an extra burden on the floor. They would take the name and number and give that to the patient...it was a P.I.T.A. but that was their policy. All a hospital has to do is be in compliance with the law....if they interpret it to be bigger or more severe then you need to abide by their interpretation....:D

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I have a question here. I heard a prehospital provider could have been fired because they asked their neighbors daughter who is at their house more than her own

"How is your dad doing". is this a hippa violation. the patient was in police custody outside the hospital and not a patient at that time. the Father was obviously drunk he was yelling the providers name saying " hey that's my neighbor ****, they lives next door to me". so could he have fought this as he feels it was not a violation and they say it is.

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Specializes in HH, Peds, Rehab, Clinical.

Sounds like a classic urban myth:

I have a question here. I heard a prehospital provider could have been fired because they asked their neighbors daughter who is at their house more than her own

"How is your dad doing". is this a hippa violation. the patient was in police custody outside the hospital and not a patient at that time. the Father was obviously drunk he was yelling the providers name saying " hey that's my neighbor ****, they lives next door to me". so could he have fought this as he feels it was not a violation and they say it is.

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