Long story short, a coworker at my hospital went digging through PHI trash (unsecured) to present to my boss work that I didn't finish. For the record, there was good reason I couldn't finish it. But isn't accessing patient info, even if it's discarded, a violation of patient's rights? Accessing PHI to monitor my progress certainly isn't required to do her job. Here's a hypothetical. Let's say I have herpes. I have documentation from my physician (I'm not only an employee, but also a patient of this hospital) notating this diagnosis. I discard this info into the PHI, assuming that it's protected. Said coworker goes rifling through the trash (seriously, who does that?) and now has access to my sensitive info. Thoughts?
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Long story short, a coworker at my hospital went digging through PHI trash (unsecured) to present to my boss work that I didn't finish. For the record, there was good reason I couldn't finish it. But isn't accessing patient info, even if it's discarded, a violation of patient's rights? Accessing PHI to monitor my progress certainly isn't required to do her job. Here's a hypothetical. Let's say I have herpes. I have documentation from my physician (I'm not only an employee, but also a patient of this hospital) notating this diagnosis. I discard this info into the PHI, assuming that it's protected. Said coworker goes rifling through the trash (seriously, who does that?) and now has access to my sensitive info. Thoughts?