is it HIPAA violation

Moved to HIPAA forum to elicit further response.

I dont think it sounds like HIPAA violation; but you can always check with your DON.

if its a diff diet than diabetic we put a diff letter on the other side. like for renal we put R with the pt name or if we have the same name we put the last name first letter... how do you guys label your patient food or food tray? please give us a good idea...

Do you really have that many different types of diets that a dietary dept needs to prep in Adult Day Care?? In most of the LTC places I've been, we basically have NAS (no extra salt packs) and D (diabetic- no sugar packs, special ice cream and desserts) and fluid restricted for our dialysis pts. Everybody else's tray would be normal regular diet. As for names, why not, John S or Mary P??? How many John S s that are NAS would be in your population? Less is best when it comes to HIPAA---just a partial name identifer and a coded diet.

Tempest in teapot. Since the residents presumably know each other's names already, and everyone is eating in the dining hall and can presumably see what meals are being served to others, it is silly to worry about labeling the meal tickets.

If you're really concerned about trying to conceal this information, which doesn't really rise to the standard of private health information in my opinion (and I am not a lawyer nor do I play one on TV), use different color tickets for different kinds of diets-- that may also serve as a prompt/reminder for the staff preparing the trays. But anyone with any smarts will be able to see that blue is for DM, green is reduced calorie, grey is for ground/pureed, pink is for renal.... Stop worrying about it and do what will make it safest for the patients-- the method that makes it least likely that they will be served the wrong diets.

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Folks...I don't even understand what the debate is.

That is like wondering, "Oh, well, we had a medication sent up from pharmacy, is it a HIPAA violation to put their name on it?"

No, it is not a HIPAA violation to put their name on it, birthday on it, room number and any other information that is NECESSARY to ensure it goes to the correct patient.