HIPAA Violation?

Published

In the past when I was doing clinicals in the ED a very famous celebrity/person came through massive MI failed resuscitation...I did CPR on him etc. Now approximately 2 years later I am writing a paper about historical markers and I plan to include him in it (ie project = historical markers personal to ones self). Would it be a HIPAA violation just to mention I received him as a patient in the ED and provided treatment before he subsequently died of cardiopulmonary arrest?

This may seem trivial, but it can be a huge plus to my paper including this, but don't want to at any expense.

Specializes in ICU.
Mike, even if you do not name this individual you have given enough identifying information for us to identify this person. How many celebrities died around 2009? How many of those were male? How many of those died from a MI? How many of those died within a hospital? Not many people die within a hospital, let alone a celebrity.

Did you discuss the care and unique identifiers of this celebrity to your colleagues? Somehow I cannot imagine that this individual's identification was kept a secret if you are willing to identify him in front of strangers on an internet forum.

I think it is clear that you do not understand HIPAA as the previous poster pointed out. It is immoral and illegal to divulge privileged information without express permission, even information from the deceased. Did you receive express permission from the patient or responsible party? It does not matter if the circumstances surrounding this individual became public knowledge, it is not your place to violate the privileged information that you were a party to.

The trust that is given to nurses is sacred and the covenant formed between the patient and nurse should never be violated, EVER, even if someone wants to name-drop a celebrity to make their otherwise dull paper interesting.

You are a professional, act like it.

There is not enough information to identify this individual. Again I understand HIPAA, but thank you for your self-righteous remarks and pearls of wisdom.

Why did this turn into a bashing thread? This was a legitimate grey area for me.

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