hippa violation with teen mother

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I have a friend, who just found out that her 16 year old daughter is pregnant. The concern is the parents found out from the family physician. The pregnant teen went to the family physician by herself. The doctor then called the parents and told them to come to the office. While at the doctors office the doctor told the parents that their daughter was pregnant. The teen was not in the room when the parents were told nor did she ask for her parents to be contacted. As a new Cardiac nurse, I was wondering if this was common practice or a HIPPA violation. I am just curious, my friend did not ask.

I have found out that the doctor did violate HIPPA.

The teenage girl is now mortified to see any doctor/dentist, etc. I am trying to talk to my friend's daughter and let her know not all health care workers are this way. All I know to do is talk to the mother and daughter and try to help them as much as I can. I have told the daughter that if there is something she wants me to tell her mother I will but only in the room with the daughter.

The worse part is this family practice doctor was my doctor until this happened. I along with the rest of my family are looking for a new family practice doctor.

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Specializes in Telemetry, Case Management.

I hope you tell that doctor WHY you are leaving his practice. He needs to get a great big wake up call on his behavior.:angryfire

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Specializes in OBGYN, Neonatal.
In my state, we need the consent of the parents of a pregnant minor to treat the minor. Once the baby is born, the minor can give consent for her baby's treatment, but the teen's parents still have to consent for any treatment for the teen until she is 18. Parenthood is not an automatic emancipation for the teen here.

That is how we handle it in VA too.

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Specializes in Did the job hop, now in MS. Not Bad!!!!!.
I have found out that the doctor did violate HIPPA.

The teenage girl is now mortified to see any doctor/dentist, etc. I am trying to talk to my friend's daughter and let her know not all health care workers are this way. All I know to do is talk to the mother and daughter and try to help them as much as I can. I have told the daughter that if there is something she wants me to tell her mother I will but only in the room with the daughter.

The worse part is this family practice doctor was my doctor until this happened. I along with the rest of my family are looking for a new family practice doctor.

Figures the MD drops the ball and leaves it to the caring, overburdened, compassionate nurse to clean up the mess!! I'm so sorry this happened. I tell my nieces and nephews that they should be able to seek medical help from "professionals" rather than through their friends or on the streets.

An unfortunate incident befell my niece when at 16 and her first love, her mom brought her to her own doc for The Pill and leaned that she had an STD. The doc told the mom, not the 16 yo niece, and are trying to put together the broken pieces of their relationship a year later.

I cannot imagine the toll this is taking on my niece mentally and emotionally. Of course I was the first one she came crying to. All I could do was rock her in my arms and cry with her. But I was still only in N.S. at the time. Scared for her and scared to give out any info, not realizing I could report this doc. Or could I?

Why is it so hard to treat all pts with confidentiality? This doc did a lot of damage to this little girl. Well, she'll always be a little girl to me. :redpinkhe

Chloe

RN-BSN, BA

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Specializes in Community, OB, Nursery.

In my state, the teen does not have to have parental consent in order to seek care for pregnancy, an STD, or mental health issues.

Once a similar situation occurred at the community health center where I worked. A 15yo girl came in with her mom and she (the 15yo) wanted a pregnancy test. I think they both suspected strongly that she was pregnant (and she was) but the mom pretty much cornered me and asked me if she was. I had to tell her that if the daughter wanted to share the test results with her, she could, but that by state law, we could not. Fortunately she was understanding and she supported her daughter throughout the pregnancy. That had the potential to be a nasty situation.

I'm sorry to hear of this situation for you, Chloe. My best wishes to all involved.

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It is too bad though that decent parents are punished because there are some terrible parents out there.

I'd like to know. Hopefully my daughter would tell me.

steph

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Specializes in Community, OB, Nursery.

I'd like to know. Hopefully my daughter would tell me.

I would hope the same thing.

Even at 3yo I tell my son that there's nothing he can't tell me.

I hope it sticks with him because I plan on repeating it a time or two between now and his teen years.

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Specializes in Home Care, Hospice, OB.

can only speak to my state, but here if the girl had gone to the health dept. or planned parenthood, her privacy would be protected..

but...since she went to her family physician, using insurance, it could be viewed as providing the family with health information on their minor child .

not advocating a preference, just noting that different locales draw different conclusions from the same set of circumstances.

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HIPAA is kind of unique in that it is a federal mandate but does defer to state law in this instance so it would depend on the state you live in.

I think most people are jumping the gun here by saying it is a HIPAA violation. We just dont know enough detailed information to make an accurate judgement. Many times the choice is deferred to the provider's discretion. Just examples that would come to my mind would be: ectopic pregnancy that child refuses treatment for, continued drug use despite knowing she is pregnant, etc.

It really is a hard issue and very emotional. Parents are legally responsible for their children and many children under 18 arent able to make rationale decisions. On the other hand, what you dont want is children who will hide (and not seek medical treatment) or who will do extreme things such as attempts to self abort.

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I have a friend, who just found out that her 16 year old daughter is pregnant. The concern is the parents found out from the family physician. The pregnant teen went to the family physician by herself. The doctor then called the parents and told them to come to the office. While at the doctors office the doctor told the parents that their daughter was pregnant. The teen was not in the room when the parents were told nor did she ask for her parents to be contacted. As a new Cardiac nurse, I was wondering if this was common practice or a HIPPA violation. I am just curious, my friend did not ask.

It does vary by state. In my state, the child is still a minor until she gives birth, therefore, the parents are entitled to know if a teen is pregnant or not so that the parents can get her adequate prenatal counseling.

Some insurance companies will pay for prenatal care but will not pay for the birth itself or any hospital stay related to the infant, because that goes along with the infant.

Here, the teen is not emancipated until she actually gives birth and can make health decisions for the baby, but not herself.

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Specializes in Ante-Intra-Postpartum, Post Gyne.

This it totally a hippa violation. Unless the 16yr was pregnanted by a 40 yr old man it is no one's business but the patients, including the parents. If she went in for an STD check...non of her parents business...if she went in for birth control pills...non of her parents business...if she went in for plan B...non of her parents business....get the idea? The minors sexual health is no ones business, including the parents (at least in the state of California)

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Specializes in ER/Nuero/PHN/LTC/Skilled/Alzheimer's.

In both the states I have practiced in, there is a state law that if the girl is over the age of 12 and seeking care for OB/GYN issues, we are not allowed to tell the parents what type of visit they are having with us. When I was a medical receptionist in a pediatrician's office, I got yelled out quite a lot from parents who had received a bill or reminder card about a doc's visit for their daughter and they wanted to know what it is for. The most we can say is that it is an office visit at this time on this date and that's all we can say. I do however, tell the girls that their parents can always call the insurance company and find out why they came in since their parents are guaranteers of the insurance. Sometimes this works to get the girls to be truthful and sometimes the teens think they know more than me.

While I don't agree with the law, I do realize it's importance. It wasn't that long ago teen moms were forced to give away their babies by their parents who didn't want shame down on the family. Nowadays with certain religious groups it can be downright dangerous for a girl to admit she has an out-of-wedlock pregnancy. Not to mention, we don't live in the girl's home, she may have the most abusive parents in the world and she would put herself and the baby at risk by telling the truth. Not every family is a true family. So, IMHO, it is a necessary evil to protect the girl and the unborn baby not to tell parents. That is just a sad truth these days.

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