I know this is wrong - but how wrong is it?

[papergirlRN]

So, my dh and some friends go out the other night to dinner. My hubby's bff, whom we'll call dick, has a girlfriend, who we'll call jane. Dick and Jane have been dating for one month, but according to them, it was love at first sight and they have spent every waking moment together, already planning to get married, buy a house, etc.

Anyway, we're waiting for our dinner to arrive, and Jane pulls out a piece of paper with lab values written on it. WBC's, K+, Na-,etc. Jane hands it to Dick, and Dick says, "what's this?" Jane (a nurse at our local hospital) says, "Oh, I got bored the other night and looked up your labs. I wrote down the abnormal ones." Dick had recently gotten hurt at work, went to the ED, and blood was drawn I assume to check for drugs/etoh since it was a worker's comp claim. Jane hands me the piece of paper as if I'm interested in Dick's labs. (I'm a 3rd semester ADN student). Dick says, "Well, what else did you learn?" and Jane says, "Well, I know you broke your ankle in 2005," etc. etc. This girl rattled off a pretty complete medical history. In the middle of a restaurant. With (basically) complete strangers. While she does know that I am a nursing student, she had no idea what my dh does for a living. I mean, what if he worked for JCAHO or something? Geez. He doesn't, but you know what I mean! This girl has guts!

Dick does not seem to think this is a big deal at all. If anything, he finds it amusing that Jane is interested and cares. Dick does not work in the medical field. Dick does not know what HIPAA means. Nothing.

Jane seems like a sweet girl, but this is unethical. Illegal. Immoral? She could lose her job for sure. Maybe her license? I don't know. Should I tell Dick about HIPAA and fines, and just plain old fashioned ethics?

What are your thoughts??

[Sue Damonas, BSN]

HIPPA violation!! She could certainly lose her job.

[leslie :-D]

Should I tell Dick about HIPAA and fines, and just plain old fashioned ethics?

no, you should tell JANE about hipaa, fines and plain old-fashioned ethics.

thankfully, it seems that dick doesn't care.

leslie

[Ms Kylee]

Holy crap! She's got nerve, that's for sure. If that happened in my hospital and his chart was audited, she'd be out of a job so fast she wouldn't have time to pack her stuff. BIG time HIPPA violation.

[TazziRN, RN]

In this case, since Dick doesn't seem to mind, it's not a big deal, however the ACT is very wrong!! Even looking up your own labs is a no-no in most facilities.

[Ivanna_Nurse, BSN, RN]

wow. I am kind of speechless. I agree with the op in telling Jane about ethics, etc. ~Ivanna

[abundantjoy07, RN]

Dick wasn't her patient, therefore she is in violation of HIPPA and has no right to:

A. Go snooping in his chart OR

B. Make copies of his medical record.

She's abusing her role as a nurse. That's a big deal as we are held to certain high ethical standards.

[EmmaG, RN]

In this case, since Dick doesn't seem to mind, it's not a big deal, however the ACT is very wrong!! Even looking up your own labs is a no-no in most facilities.

Hoo boy, you're not kidding. I was in for a bowel perf, and after discharge got a second surgical opinion at the request of my primary (this wasn't someone I wanted to see). She told me that my CT showed the perf to be in a particular area of the bowel, and I knew she was wrong. So my next night on, I looked it up just to see. I wasn't thinking about the HIPAA stuff, just aggravated at her insistence and arguing with me about this. The next thing I know, I'm being counseled for violating the rules... seems I was the random user from our unit that month picked for an audit.

:stone

[llg, PhD, RN]

This girl has guts!

I doubt she has guts. I think she is too stupid to know how afraid she should be to do what she did. There's a big difference.

I'd probably say something to her about and see how she reacts. If it were someone I worked with and I felt it were not a one-time incident, I would report her.

[muffie, RN]

oh its very wrong, dismissal for sure

[Captain Tripps]

See this is where my quick, and usually rather mean, sense of humor gets me in trouble.

I would have looked right at her and said, "Wow, you do that too? I looked you up the other day just for fun, so how are the outbreaks? Is the Valtrex working for ya??

Peace,

Tripps

[meownsmile, BSN, RN]

All computer use at my facility is monitored. If we are caught accessing even our own labs without permission from the hospital we can be fired. Our access allows only those patients we are caring for that day, anything else is offlimits. Let alone looking up someone elses who isnt even related to us and flashing them all over in a public place. If she works in a position where she has access to these things she needs a wake up call and "dick" needs to hope they dont break up and she has hard feelings because she could do and may do some real damage to his reputation/career.

Shes an idiot and "dick" maybe should revisit whether he really wants to spend the rest of his life with someone who has no idea what the word confidential means.