How to prove nurse looked up my medical record

[Marmolada]

I was hospitalized in the same hospital that my husband's friend just got a job. She was on training, in completely different ward. She would visit my room often, on her breaks etc. I didn't discuss my condition with her. And I didn't gave her permission to look up my records. One day she visit me in my hospital room and started patronizing me, saying that my calcium levels were really high and my potassium extrey low ( I was in DKA ) and that my kidneys are suffering etc. So in shock I asked her how can she possibly know that. She said my lab tests are very bad and the doctor ( mutual friend , nefrologist from different hospital) said that this indicates possible kidney shutting down. At this point I was so angry and I asked ' how come everybody seen my records but me?' She didn't answer. Instead she looked at my IV bag and ask what is it. I said it's done and for her to not to worry about it. I asked why she knows about my condition but she GOOGLED my IV bag!! And said ' that's what I tought'. I had enough! I said that this is invading my privacy and I do not wish to anyone but doctors to see my files. She did not care! Instead she was patronizing me about my type 1 diabetes! Since she's not my friend, but my husbands friend I was extremely upset and told my husband that this is illegal! He went and checked it, and apparently there's no entry from her login on my charts.

My question is , how could she looked it up without leaving her ID on it. What are other possible ways of finding out what's in my records? ( she knew things that neither me or my husband knew) And how can I prove it? I don't want to get her fired. I want my husband to believe me that she did that. Since there was no proof it seems like she's innocent. But she's not. She did look up my files. She checked my IV bag while I was telling her that I do not wish her to do it. She was working ( on break) , so it has to be some kind of violation. I need to know how she have that, how can I prove it?

[klone, MSN, RN]

And I would flat out ask her HOW she knew all your lab values. There is only one way to know that, and that's by looking at your record. Regardless of HOW she got that information, the fact is, she has no business with it, and it's a privacy violation whether she got it from your record, your nurse told her, or she dug the lab report out of the trash.

I'm just going to repeat this again because it bears repeating. Even if she did not go into your electronic chart, what she did was a privacy violation all the same, and completely inappropriate. As someone who was not assigned to care for you, she has no business KNOWING your lab information, let alone barging into your hospital room uninvited and discussing your care with you.

[elkpark]

Marmolada said:

I don't want to get her fired. She has six kids.

Too bad, then, that she chose to violate hospital policy and Federal and state privacy law.

As for your husband's report that he "checked" on this, unless, as already noted, he has a friend in the hospital IT department who checked for him "under the table," there's no way the hospital would check on this and report to him on the results in any official way.

The more I hear about this, the more curious I'm becoming about the relationship between your husband and this "friend." His loyalties seem to be, at best, divided.

[macawake, MSN]

Marmolada said:

I was hospitalized in the same hospital that my husband's friend just got a job. She was on training, in completely different ward. She would visit my room often, on her breaks etc. I didn't discuss my condition with her. And I didn't gave her permission to look up my records. One day she visit me in my hospital room and started patronizing me, saying that my calcium levels were really high and my potassium extrey low ( I was in DKA ) and that my kidneys are suffering etc. So in shock I asked her how can she possibly know that. She said my lab tests are very bad and the doctor ( mutual friend , nefrologist from different hospital) said that this indicates possible kidney shutting down.

A bit of a tangent but I'm curious. OP, are you in the US?

Who's "the doctor", the nefrologist from a different hospital? Is s/he your doctor? Is it possible that this doctor (the mutual friend) has told your husband's friend about your lab values? The reason I ask is that you wrote that this doctor had told your husband's friend that your lab values might indicate that your kidneys were "shutting down".

To me, this means that your husband's friend must first have found out about your lab values and then consulted with the mutual friend doctor about them and that this must have taken place before she visited you in your hospital room. The timeline and reason/circumstance they were discussing your medical condition makes me wonder.

Was she in hospital attire/scrubs when she visited you? Is it possible that staff might have let some of your medical particulars slip if she identified herself as your friend and was also wore nursing clothes?

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Instead she looked at my IV bag and ask what is it. I said it's done and for her to not to worry about it. I asked why she knows about my condition but she GOOGLED my IV bag!! And said ' that's what I tought'.

What a busybody

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My question is , how could she looked it up without leaving her ID on it.

By reading your chart on somebody else's login. Somehow though, I just get the feeling that she's been told parts of your medical details but hasn't read the entire chart. I base this on the fact that she felt it necessary to "play detective" and research the contents on your IV bag. The "that's what I thought" comment is pretty telling. She had some information about your medical status/current condition and treatments in advance, but not all.

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She denied it later on and said that if she did that it would be recorded in the hospital system.

The fact that she said this, in my opinion supports my hunch that she's confident that she hasn't left an electronic footprint. I don't think that she has accessed your medical records under her own login. As the patient you could always ask the hospital to provide you a list of who's accessed your records though, that way you'd know for sure if you want to.

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Apparently my husband checked with the hospital if anyone outside the unit did log into my records. But , it's gonna sound horrible, I don't believe he did. She's an old friend of his and I'm doubting if he ( knowing she can lose job) had done that.

As previous posters have stated, unless your husband works for IT (or similar) in the hospital you were treated I doubt that he has access to this information. I wouldn't come as a huge surprise to me if you're correct about your assumption/suspicion regarding if your husband has actually checked or not. I obviously don't know your husband, but he might well be protecting his friend.

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As much as I want to prove that she did it, I hoped there was a way of doing it without possibly causing a job loss.

Having someone sticking their nose into your medical business when you don't want them to is upsetting and I can understand if you're upset, angry or hurt by this. I also understand the feeling of needing the other person to admit to and own their violation of your privacy. Also, it's my personal opinion that your husband needs to be supportive of you in this situation.

Honestly, I don't think that you should accept any responsiblity for her actions in this case. I don't know if an investigation would lead to her being disciplined or fired but if it did, it would be her own actions that lead to that result. You'd only share the responsibility if you'd asked her to inquire about/look up your medical information which judging by your post, you have not.

I'm sorry this happened to you OP.

[Nonyvole, BSN, RN]

Part of being an employee in a hospital is signing a piece of paper saying that you will not access anybody's records unless and until you are assigned their care. (One notable exception is for people doing routine chart audits, but even then we don't go and start talking about it.)

Or, don't feel guilty that she will get in trouble for violating that agreement. She made her bed, now she gets to lie in it.

[anie10]

Marmolada said:

Thank you for all answers.

I don't want to get her fired. She has six kids. And I would feel terrible. But at the same time she had no right to see my records.

Apparently my husband checked with the hospital if anyone outside the unit did log into my records. But , it's gonna sound horrible, I don't believe he did. She's an old friend of his and I'm doubting if he ( knowing she can lose job) had done that.

She denied it later on and said that if she did that it would be recorded in the hospital system.

This is why I wondered how else could she have done that.

Mas mentioned in one of the posts above, she could have used trainers ID.

As much as I want to prove that she did it, I hoped there was a way of doing it without possibly causing a job loss.

once again thank you for all answers. I will ask her to tell the truth one more time. If she is going to deny what she said in the room that day, I will contact the unit manager.

Sorry, I would check my husband about his friend thinking she can violate my rights.

If she has 6 kids, then she has 6 benefactors, or at least 2. You cannot be responsible for the consequences she faces as a result of her actions.

[caliotter3]

Your husband's friend does not act like someone who is overly concerned with providing support for her six children. Being insanely curious is one thing, rubbing your nose in the fact that she obtained this personal information points to her less than altruistic intentions. I would not hesitate to file complaints about this mess if I were you.

[Red Kryptonite]

Your problem is your husband. His "friend" is a troll, but he believes her over you and is allowing her to treat you this way while keeping her as a "friend." My husband's ass would be riding the cold, hard curb if I were you.

[ixchel]

Marmalada, I know you feel you would have a personal stake in getting her fired and you don't want that to happen. However, I'm also guessing you don't work in healthcare.

The reason that matters is that in healthcare, HIPAA is not just a guideline. It's a huge deal. It is such a huge deal that hospitals have to conduct internal audits on patients (even when no complaint has been filed), and if it is determined a person has had their information breached, that person MUST be notified by the hospital. Individual violations can be fined something like $30,000 per violation (feel free to correct me, nurses, if my number is wrong).

What she did could cost her hospital $30,000, and by law, if she did access your chart, the hospital is REQUIRED to notify you. This isn't an "oh, well" type of situation. This is most definitely a "holy $#!+, we're in big trouble" situation.

Hospitals are clear about this with their employees. Employees sign documents acknowledging they understand this. Nurses and doctors learn about this in some detail when they are in school. If you initiate an investigation, and you should, she will face consequences that she was fully aware of before she chose to invade your privacy. She chose to find this information about you knowing how much trouble she would get into. Since she is on orientation, perhaps she'll get a different punishment other than firing plus some remediation, but she took this on either way. You aren't doing this to her. She did this to you, and herself.

All of that rant aside, OH MY GOD. If someone did that to me, I'd immediately tell my nurse to move me to a different room and remove my name from the computer and anywhere else it may be visible to others. You even told her (in so many words) your IV bag was none of her business but she looked it up anyway?! If she wasn't in your chart, she probably asked someone who might know your info. Although, if she had to google it, I'm guessing she's not a nurse??? Regardless, what a rude person!!! I feel like your husband responded the same way mine would - say he did something about it just to make me stop complaining, when really he did nothing. The above poster is right - there is an actual process for determining whether a person accessed a chart, and chances are they wouldn't be able to tell him what they found anyway, it sounds like you might need to be the one to raise a stink about all this and not depend on him to get his head out of his butt about this.

I genuinely hope with all my heart that you are on the mend soon. DKA is nasty stuff. I also hope she was wrong about your kidney function and your nephrologist is good and thorough. (((Hugs))) You have enough to deal with without dealing with this junk!

[BuckyBadgerRN, ASN, RN]

Curious as all get out: OP, are you a nurse? Or even in healthcare at all?

[toomuchbaloney]

Holy moly.

That husband ought to be in deep deep trouble, I would be if I responded in that way.

The complaint ought to be made to the hospital, HIPAA applies to all of us all of the time.

Not reporting this actually encourages the busybody to continue with this sort of unprofessional and unacceptable behavior.

[SmilingBluEyes]

Terrible situation. BUT did you think, if she is doing this to YOU, she will likely breech someone ELSE's records for her own use?

Think about other people and who could be harmed.

She needs to be reported for HIPAA violation. SHE indeed signed paperwork and receives annual training about HIPAA laws and what violations can result in. It's a condition of her continued employment in her institution. ALSO consider, she is a HUGE liability for her hospital doing this. Lawsuits have been filed for such cases, and the payouts, I am sure, would not be worth it to the hospital for keeping on such a dishonest person.

She violated you. Make no mistake. And she will likely do it again to someone else.

I urge you not to let it drop, but pursue it.

Because people who are this sleazy will hurt someone else in the future. Please, don't allow that to happen.

[KelRN215, BSN, RN]

elkpark said:

Too bad, then, that she chose to violate hospital policy and Federal and state privacy law.

As for your husband's report that he "checked" on this, unless, as already noted, he has a friend in the hospital IT department who checked for him "under the table," there's no way the hospital would check on this and report to him on the results in any official way.

The more I hear about this, the more curious I'm becoming about the relationship between your husband and this "friend." His loyalties seem to be, at best, divided.

Precisely. While we're on the topic of HIPAA, your husband has no more rights to know who accessed your medical records than this nurse friend does to access them. Marriage doesn't negate privacy laws. If you want to know if she accessed your charts, you will have to find out yourself.