HIPAA violation?

[haunani, BSN, RN]

Not me, but a friend of mine. Here's the situation. Patient is friend of Nurse.

Patient posted on Facebook something like "I hate General Hospital! They suck! They sent me home without giving me the treatment I wanted!"

Nurse responded to post: "I saw your name. What happened?"

Rest of conversation was done in private messages. Nurse was not overstepping her boundaries when she saw that patient's name, as it was on a board that we frequently monitor in our department.

Was this a HIPAA violation?

[I<3Nursing]

No. Everything patient related was self disclosed by the patient there was no personal information brought up by the nurse.

[haunani, BSN, RN]

That's what we think, too, that the patient self-disclosed both the name of the hospital and why she was here. The nurse was fired over this, with their reasoning being that she "confirmed" the patient had been in the hospital.

The ironic part is that the nurse was able to smooth things over with the patient in the private messages so the patient wasn't left with a bad taste for the hospital.

[jadelpn, LPN, EMT-B]

They had her at "I saw your name".....

If you are monitoring websites on your unit, under who's direction? Is this part of your job to respond to these inquires/complaints?

What are you to do with this information?

If this is something that ya'll log onto for "entertainment" purposes (meaning that you just look at them while you are working) then it should be a read only, and not responding to any of it.

If this is a facility group that on social media, then it needs to be approved, and when approved, monitored, not open to the public, something to that nature.

Sorry that this happend to your friend. Just be really, really careful as facilities do NOT want bad press, ever.

[klone, MSN, RN]

They had her at "I saw your name".....

If you are monitoring websites on your unit, under who's direction? Is this part of your job to respond to these inquires/complaints?

What are you to do with this information?

If this is something that ya'll log onto for "entertainment" purposes (meaning that you just look at them while you are working) then it should be a read only, and not responding to any of it.

If this is a facility group that on social media, then it needs to be approved, and when approved, monitored, not open to the public, something to that nature.

Sorry that this happend to your friend. Just be really, really careful as facilities do NOT want bad press, ever.

I've reread this post several times and it makes no sense to me in the context of the OP. I don't understand what this means:

If you are monitoring websites on your unit, under who's direction? Is this part of your job to respond to these inquires/complaints?

What are you to do with this information?

If this is something that ya'll log onto for "entertainment" purposes (meaning that you just look at them while you are working) then it should be a read only, and not responding to any of it.

[Esme12, ASN, BSN, RN]

What are you monitoring social media at work? Even if it is the hospital website you "should" not be on it during work hours.

Many facilities have policies that even though the say "HIPAA" it isn't rally HIPAA but apart of the confidentiality "non disclosure" policy of the facility that states in effect...you will not represent the hospital in any way without proper release and permission.

[jadelpn, LPN, EMT-B]

I've reread this post several times and it makes no sense to me in the context of the OP. I don't understand what this means:

The OP states that the board they were on is frequently monitored by the unit. Why is that? To respond to patient requests or complaints? Or it is just a board that someone brings up onto the computer to read while at the nurses station, entertainment (loose reference).

If it is something that they are supposed to be monitoring, then I am not sure what they are to do with that information--without violating someone's privacy.

Bottom line, anyone can go onto a website and trash a facility (except on AN, there's term of service violations about naming facilities) but by acknowledging "I saw your name" confirms the person WAS a patient, therefore, bad press.

[Nurse Leigh]

The way I understand it, the nurse and pt have a previous "friendship" on Facebook. Pt's comment came up on nurse's news feed and nurse commented that she'd seen pt's name on an admission list or something like that at the hospital. Nurse was concerned that pt unhappy with treatment at hospital and went on to have a private conversation with this person via Facebook. The OP did not indicate that any of this communication took place at the hospital. Am I understanding correctly, OP?

[BuckyBadgerRN, ASN, RN]

So your the nurse confirmed that she knew your friend was seen at her hospital. Yep, big no no. True, no medical information was disclosed, but you can't even say your saw so and so at your place of work

[KRVRN, BSN, RN]

I took "board" to mean census list. Nothing about a website or social media or something for entertainment. Some individuals do have the authority to be looking at the census lists of other units.

[klone, MSN, RN]

Right, by "board" I figured the OP meant "big white board where all the patients are listed"

That's why Jade's post did not make any sense to me.

[haunani, BSN, RN]

Correct. Board = census list for our 'sister' department at the hospital. We monitor this board as it directly affects our patient census and we need to know when to prepare for admits/increased census.

The patient herself said that she was here, which is why I'm confused as to how the nurse saying "I saw your name" is a breach of confidentiality.