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.
Specializes in Peds/outpatient FP,derm,allergy/private duty.
It doesn't seem to matter much to hospitals if a breach is technically a HIPAA violation or not. The actual definition of HIPAA refers to the transmission of electronic medical records. They are paranoid about it to the point of insanity. Therefore the word "nurse" isn't on my Facebook page anywhere. I don't talk about where I work at all. Jobs are really too scarce nowadays to muck about with things like that. Just my .002.
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.
HAHAHAHA! Apparently I am too tuned in to message boards!! DUH!!
Ah, well, OP--your friend may be able to look at the census from another department, but to acknowledge that she saw the person's name--regardless what the patient posts on social media is never a good thing. In other words, by saying "I saw your name" is acknowledging she was a patient.
Additionally, getting involved in a private conversation with the former patient on social media, "private" message regarding all of this is also not a great thing either, but story for another thread,
Specializes in Nurse Leader specializing in Labor & Delivery.
HAHAHAHA! Apparently I am too tuned in to message boards!! DUH!!
I was literally thinking to myself "Was Jade drunk when she wrote this? I cannot make heads or tails of what she's trying to say!" Once I figured out the misunderstanding, it all became clear. :)
Specializes in Critical Care, ED, Cath lab, CTPAC,Trauma.
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.
right...then how did FB get involved.
Yes you can look at bedboards...however when the used the information they were privy to to FB and identified themselves ad from that facility AND that they patient was there...is a big no no.
I guess I really don't see a HIPAA violation in all this if the patient explicitly stated that they were a patient at the facility and the nurse did not add anything more than that.
However, the hospital may have a big issue with the fact the nurse directly commented on a patient complaint (and brought attention to it to more potential patients). While not a HIPAA violation, it is likely a violation of the hospital's social media policy.
The patient telling nurse about what happened to them at the hospital is not a HIPAA violation. If the patient decides to spill their guts, HIPAA goes out the window because it's the patient disclosing their info.
But...
Ah, well, OP--your friend may be able to look at the census from another department, but to acknowledge that she saw the person's name--regardless what the patient posts on social media is never a good thing. In other words, by saying "I saw your name" is acknowledging she was a patient.
It's one thing for the patient to rant about the terrible hospital. But when you have an employee of the terrible hospital essentially confirming that the patient was a patient in that terrible hospital...it may not technically violate HIPAA, but it doesn't exactly help the hospital's image either.
HIPAA specifically allows for staff to confirm someone is a patient in the hospital unless they request do-not-announce status. In this case where it was the patient themselves who disclosed they were a patient in the hospital, confirming that publicly is clearly not a HIPAA violation.
That really doesn't matter though, in the majority of situations where an employee is disciplined or terminated for privacy violations it's not HIPAA they are violating, it's the facilities own privacy rules which tend to be extremely strict. The fact that she was actually defending the hospital doesn't really make a difference even though it doesn't seem logical for hospital administrators to fire someone for helping their cause, logic is irrelevant in these situations.
Whenever I hear of someone being fired for a seemingly small infraction I wonder if he or she was already on the company's radar as a problem employee.
Specializes in Critical Care, ED, Cath lab, CTPAC,Trauma.
Whenever I hear of someone being fired for a seemingly small infraction I wonder if he or she was already on the company's radar as a problem employee.
I used to believe that...these days I'm not so sure.
I am unfamiliar with laws regarding HIPAA right now as I haven't started my program. I start in August :) Can someone explain this issue to mean in the simplest way?
1. Was the patietn at the hospital while the complaint was posted online?
2. How did the nurse have access to see this complaint?
3. If the patient posted that he or she went to that hospital in their post, then what is the issue on the nurse-friend being concerned enough to ask what went wrong? How does this violate anything?
Sorry if these questions sound stupid, but I worry I won't catch onto this subject very well, so I am reading up on this stuff to see how you experienced RNs handle this stuff. Thanks!
As others have stated, If the nurse-friend had just said "What happened?" This may not have been an issue. MAY not have been an issue, but hospitals are very trigger happy with anything that may even appear to be a privacy violation.
My question is this: If this was a Facebook posting on the patient's page, and the nurse is a friend of the patient in personal life, how in the world did the hospital even find out about the posting?
My question is this: If this was a Facebook posting on the patient's page, and the nurse is a friend of the patient in personal life, how in the world did the hospital even find out about the posting?
Just a theory here…the nurse is FB friends with a coworker. The coworker "friend" (and I use the term loosely) wanted to be a brown nose, tattle tail, etc. (or, yes, they could have had genuine concern that HIPAA had been violated), so this "friend" turned this person in to the hospital.
nursel56
7,122 Posts
It doesn't seem to matter much to hospitals if a breach is technically a HIPAA violation or not. The actual definition of HIPAA refers to the transmission of electronic medical records. They are paranoid about it to the point of insanity. Therefore the word "nurse" isn't on my Facebook page anywhere. I don't talk about where I work at all. Jobs are really too scarce nowadays to muck about with things like that. Just my .002.