Hippaa Violation!!!!!!

[mamason]

You admit a pt. The pt is admitted to a semi-private room with a roommate. You start your admission assessment and questioning. You use a generic admissions questionaire that the facility requires you fill out. Even though you are as quiet as possible, the roommate over hears your conversation. Then, the new admission states that his/her HIPPAA rights have been violated and he/she is embarrassed.

Is this truly a HIPPAA violation? And if so, how do you avoid this if you have semi-private rooms. I read somewhere about "incidentals." Any help would be appreciated.

[Ruby Vee, BSN]

obviously. but think about the infection risk, the lack of rest (your room mate has the tv blaring all night and there's nothing you can do about it), and the privacy issue. it really is rather backwards and inappropriate.

i was in the hospital last year with a stomach flu and was having constant diarrhea. i both my room mates and i were on i&os, so every time i went in the bathroom i had to lift her urine-filled hat out and put my own in. it was nasty, and the aids and nurses never seemed to be around to do it. probably because the hospital is infamous for poor staffing. then i kept having diarrhea and my poor room mate had to use the toilet i just had huge amounts of diarrhea into. it's disgusting.

then imagine having someone just a curtain away while you're having a foley put in. how was that make you feel?

even if you just had a regular outpatient physical being done, how would you feel if someone else was in the room with you?

i know it's a huge cost to change things, but i really can't believe we consider this acceptable.

i've been a patient in a double room and have horror stories to match yours -- and i've experienced the curtain being whisked aside just as my nurse is putting in my foley. i know how it feels. on the other hand, you clearly have no idea how much it would cost to just find double rooms unacceptable. and double rooms are an enormous improvement upon the wards we used to have. health care costs are already spiralling out of control. as uncomfortable as a double room can be, i'd much prefer that to a 16 bed ward with no tv, no telephone and no bathroom at all.

as new hospitals and new wings are being built, the more affluent ones will start phasing out the double rooms. but that process is a long time in coming. in the meantime, we'll all just have to suck it up and deal with the double rooms.

[CHATSDALE]

at one point in time there were rules that insurance would only pay for a semi-private room unless there were health reason which would require it

therefore there was always some semi-private rooms as a standard and when they were filled then it was acceptable to place insurance pts in private rooms...many hospitals being build then would have this requirements in mind

when they build private rooms they would shrink till there was a major difficulty in trying to conduct a code

[dream'n, BSN, RN]

No, it's not. Many people misunderstand the intention and use of HIPPA. You can just politely explain that HIPPA does not apply to semi-private rooms.

On another note, I don't find semi-private rooms to be "barbaric" at all. Sensory deprivation is a very real thing, and semi-private rooms can help to ease some of that. I spent 5 days in a private room, and by day 3 I thought I would go nuts. If you aren't needy and don't have a lot of visitors, you spend hours and hours staring at the TV. It sucks. Also, I've met some people who made very real, lifelong friends during their hospital stays....and many of our elderly patients request to NOT be in a private room. Just another perspective.

Well that's really nice, but what if their roommate is sick and doesn't feel like being social, let alone making lifelong friends for pete's sake. If I'm an inpatient I certainly don't want to be some roommates entertainment to prevent their sensory deprivation. As long as I'm not unconcious I will always choose to go to the hospitals in my area that provide only private rooms. This issue touches a nerve in me as you can tell:wink2:

Basically HIPPA is an important enough law that it's stuffed down our throats 24-7 and has created all kinds of unnecessary problems for some patients and families, but not important enough to have the hospitals spend REAL money on.

[ilstu99]

Well that's really nice, but what if their roommate is sick and doesn't feel like being social, let alone making lifelong friends for pete's sake. If I'm an inpatient I certainly don't want to be some roommates entertainment to prevent their sensory deprivation. As long as I'm not unconcious I will always choose to go to the hospitals in my area that provide only private rooms. This issue touches a nerve in me as you can tell:wink2:

Basically HIPPA is an important enough law that it's stuffed down our throats 24-7 and has created all kinds of unnecessary problems for some patients and families, but not important enough to have the hospitals spend REAL money on.

To each his or her own. One way is not more correct or acceptable than the other. I certainly don't wish to pay 3X the cost for a private room because other people demand it.You can say the "the hospital" will be spending the money if you want to, but all it does is add to the already absurd costs forced on the consumer.