HIPAA violation

Very clear violation.

I agree with the previous posters. However, at one time, if you were given written permission by your grandfather to have access to his records, it was possible. When my mother-in-law was in a rehab facility that, shall we say, lead to a very negative outcome for her (long story), she and her sons gave me permission to review her records, which I did, with agreement by the facility.

My reason for asking is that I work for a facility, a girl who works for the company is reading all the electronic nursing notes and complaining to our supervisor and we are getting our bottoms chewed. She's even asked us to change our charting. I'm not but I was curious if this was a hippa violation.

Please, Flapjack, change HIPPA to HIPAA because we do not want GrnTea to have a stroke. And she will.

Get permission through channels. Looking without permission is the exact reason for the law. Just hypothetically- what if he didn't want you in his record?

My reason for asking is that I work for a facility, a girl who works for the company is reading all the electronic nursing notes and complaining to our supervisor and we are getting our bottoms chewed. She's even asked us to change our charting. I'm not but I was curious if this was a hippa violation.

Is she reading her relative's chart? If she has the authority/permission from the patient/relative/POA, this may be OK if she is going through the correct channels. If it is not her role to audit charts, she really does not have any business telling others to change their charting. If, however, her role is to review charts and offer suggestions on what should be in the nursing notes, then it's a different story.

When you work for a facility that is housing and caring for a relative you may review that record IF;

1) you have permission/authority from the patient which is clearly documented, in the fashion required by the facility, to access such information,

2) you have notified your employer and immediate supervisor(s) that you have such permission,

3) you ask the employer permission to access that information using your employee portals rather than more typical patient/family portals,

4) you accomplish that access on personal time unless given specific permission to access family medical documents on company time, and

5) you disclose to co-workers your relationship and ability to review their work and documentation. This last item is not a HIPAA requirement but is good interpersonal and team conduct.