HIPAA Violation

Cat59 · Apr 21, 2022

Thank you very much for your kindness This had deeply hurt me. I don’t know if part of its due to my age 54 but they made me feel both ashamed and embarrassed. It’s always been a dream I’ve spent over 4 years battling cancer stage 4 breast and then took care of my husband till his death and now I thought I would fulfill my dream of becoming a nurse. But I just don’t know sny more.

No Stars In My Eyes · Apr 21, 2022

23 hours ago, CommunityRNBSN said:

I am so, so sorry. This is ridiculous. Patient privacy is important but to make a decision like this shows incredibly poor judgement on the part of the faculty there.

Just say "I had some academic trouble and had to leave that program. Later, I applied at X university and it was a much better fit." This won't follow you.

Exactly this ^^^^^^^^^^^^^!

Cat59 · Apr 22, 2022

I can not thank you enough for the support you all have shown me. it means so much to me that I am not the horrible person that they made me out to be. It was a awful mistake on my part. I truly thank each of you for your knowledge and compassion.

iNurs5, CNA · May 1, 2022

On 4/20/2022 at 10:16 AM, Cat59 said:

I appreciate the input they expelled me I’m Afraid this we’ll follow me .

Did you post it anywhere else?

Cat59 · May 2, 2022

No I did not we had to write about our observation day and I submitted the post to the classes assignment site in Canvas.

bsd058 · Nov 5, 2022

On 4/20/2022 at 10:14 AM, Gratefulbutnotstupid said:

Still in school. This would have been an opportunity for the school to sit you down and go over HIPAA and what you did wrong. Teaching moment. They obviously missed the mark on this if you did not understand. It seems that most places think everyone knows the acronym HIPAA, what it means and the implications. I can see students thinking the school is HIPAA compliant and information could be used and maybe even expected. You should have been required to rewrite the paper without the names and other identifying information and given a warning. Obviously the school was not affected if they had to check with the hospital for names and other identifying info. A no no for them asking post student activity. The information is given prior to the student activity and should not have to be repeated. Patients give permission for student care, but not to have this much repeating of their info.

Apply to another school.

They, believe it or not, are required to report a breach of a patient’s information to the patient. If they had less than an arm’s length relationship to the hospital (example: the company that teaches also owns the hospital), then it’s reasonable that they would confirm the breach first, and then reach out to the patient to advise them of what happened. At least, that’s how it is with insurance (I’ve been a health insurance auditor for 7 years, working in health insurance for about a decade) companies who also own hospitals. Not sure if it works the same for schools who own hospitals.

Karahrn · Feb 19, 2023

So are y'all saying these days (I went to nursing school in early 80') when you are give an assignment of a patient you are required to change the demographics? You were given the patient name, age and diagnoses. You were required to complete a care plan on that person then care for them in the hospital. No information was changed for your care plan. Wow have things changed. ☹️

Leader25, ASN, BSN, RN · Feb 19, 2023

Cat59 said:

I violated HIPAA with out realizing it by I guess using Names and Ages for a school assignment I have now been expelled

I have a problem with the information you provide as to why you were expelled and you do not know why?Huh?Being expelled is a serious matter,what did the documentation state?Who knew the names were of actual patients?was their MR number listed?,I need more info ,sorry.

jennw79 · Mar 15, 2023

I'm faculty in a nursing program.

A couple of key take aways.

1)We spend about 2 hours in the lab verbally going over HIPAA before our first semester students enter the hospital. Show videos, give examples, we all tell stories of people we know who have been fired, etc. Then the lead professor reiterates it in lecture. It is also in the handbook. It is also in the syllabus.

So there really is no excuse. When a student violates HIPAA at the clinical site, besides the ethical implications of violating patient privacy, it places the program at risk of losing that precious clinical site. We are guests there and the hospital is under no obligation to us. They can kick us out at any given time. There are some things that have to be a 'hard line.'

But I know what we do in our program might not be how you guys were educated on HIPAA-I'm just explaining it from the other point of view.

2) We've had many students that have had 'hiccups' along the way in our program-that do not involve HIPAA- and we do consider it on a case by case basis, and use those as teachable moments and an opportunity for the student nurse to grow while he/she is still in school.

3) I've had many students that are from other programs that they weren't successful in. "They weren't a good fit." And now they are in our program.

I think you'll be fine. On your future application, you will have to say if you've ever been in a program before, answer yes, and answer all questions honestly. You might even have to say you were expelled and write an explanation on why.

Do yourself a favor and educate yourself on all things HIPAA!!

Good luck future nurse :)

Cat59 · Mar 15, 2023

bsd058 said:

They, believe it or not, are required to report a breach of a patient's information to the patient. If they had less than an arm's length relationship to the hospital (example: the company that teaches also owns the hospital), then it's reasonable that they would confirm the breach first, and then reach out to the patient to advise them of what happened. At least, that's how it is with insurance (I've been a health insurance auditor for 7 years, working in health insurance for about a decade) companies who also own hospitals. Not sure if it works the same for schools who own hospitals.

Thank you for you input I greatly appreciate all your great insights and I have learn so much from this incident and from wonderful nurses and instructors like you . So thank you again.

Helpmeplesse · Mar 18, 2023

I think I violated HIPAA by accident will I get in trouble I'm a CNA for little over a year and I'm new at the job I access list of people being discharged from different hospitals around the area while getting lost in the system trying to find my way out. Will I get in trouble? I saw another CNA do it that was training me. Did I violate it even though I didn't pay attention to the names

windsurfer8, BSN, RN · Aug 28, 2023

CommunityRNBSN said:

I am so, so sorry. This is ridiculous. Patient privacy is important but to make a decision like this shows incredibly poor judgement on the part of the faculty there.

Just say "I had some academic trouble and had to leave that program. Later, I applied at X university and it was a much better fit." This won't follow you.

No it isn't "poor judgment". It is called consequences. It is a clear violation of the rules and a violation like this could lead to a sentinel event and major lawsuit. Everything is liability. If a student is this clueless about personal information they need to find a career outside nursing with lower liability risk.