Is giving information to the police a HIPAA violation

[YeeHaw2000]

So I am a nursing student watching a show where a police officer comes into a patient's room and asks the nurse a couple of questions regarding the patient and how he was doing. The police officer was doing an investigation to try to see how the patient was doing after getting beat up. She was trying to ask the patient if he remembers anything. The patient suffers from dementia and couldn't answer anything for himself. The family requested police to investigate who committed the crime. Did the nurse violate hipaa by giving the police officer information, even if it is in favor of the patient?

[klone, MSN, RN]

No, because it was a TV show, which is fictional.

[JKL33]

Relevant information here; you will notice it references allowances for some state laws as well.

It's a good website to start perusing.

[LilPeanut, MSN, RN, NP]

A general "the patient is critical" vs "the patient is good" is typically not going to cause problems; they have access to that by calling the main information line. Taking samples, providing an assessment of their status or diagnosis, running tests desired only by police for non-clinical purposes, those would be in violation of the pts. privacy and autonomy, unless the police have a proper warrant to obtain the samples/assessments.

[Emergent, RN]

In our ER, the police will come to the room if there is a trauma such as a car wreck caused by someone else, a shooting or knifing. They'll take photos, we put clothes in a paper bag.

They need a warrant for a blood draw of a suspect, that I know. They never want blood from a victim like that cop in Utah did.

They'll gather in the hall outside the room while we work on the patient and pretty much know what's going on anyways. I'm sure they have a professional code of conduct regarding this.

If the patient is awake and doesn't want police involvement, of course they have that right.

[Jory, MSN, APRN, CNM]

We had a nurse from our hospital that was suspended for this a few months ago. HIPAA education has since been modified to include a "what to do" scenario.

Let me explain how it works:

Even if police comes in and hands a warrant to you...you don't have to give them anything. Even a warrant has to be executed (followed-through) by those in authority to give information. Why? Because the police department doesn't have passcodes to patient healthcare records. I DO NOT CARE what they say....you have the right to forward their request to your in-house supervisor.

Medical records is not an emergency and nobody is going to die if there is a delay of a few minutes.

Risk Management/House Supervisor/ and-or Medical Records will review the warrant to determine exactly what it asks for because it is a HIPAA violation if they give MORE INFORMATION than the warrant asks for...that is why it's important to review the higher ups.

If an attorney comes in and asks to speak to you or asks for records (this has happened) you don't talk to them and forward them to your supervisor (The house supervisor, not the charge nurse).

If a police officer comes in and questions you, again, forward them to your house supervisor.

[LilPeanut, MSN, RN, NP]

I just thought of a real life scenario that actually happened to me when I was a unit secretary.

Police called to ask about a patient condition, and I hesitated as I was about to transfer to someone higher up because I assumed they were asking for more detailed information. I said they'd have to hold while I got someone - and they clarified they just needed to know if the patient's condition was serious or not to know whether to hold the person who caused the accident (who was drunk). It changed the level of the crime majorly if it turned out everyone was fine, it was just a precaution, vs seriously injured and could die. That fell into "good, fair, critical", which I was allowed to give out. But if they needed more information, nursing supervisor would have needed to field that call.

[Jory, MSN, APRN, CNM]

What happened this week at our hospital was a perfect example.

An attorney's office called the floor looking for an update on the patient. One of the senior nurses took the call, it was during the day, the attorney said they "represented the patient" and wanted to know when they were discharged. They acted like it was an urgent matter.

The nurse told the attorney, "I can't even acknowledge the patient was here or not because of HIPAA, but let me give you the number to risk management so you can call and they can guide you through."

She gave them the number. The nurse called risk management and left a message giving them the name of the attorney and stating they would be recalling regarding so-and-so and they were claiming to represent the patient.

Risk management calls the nurse several hours later. GUESS WHO NEVER CALLED risk management.

Yup, the attorney.

This is why you refer the calls. This "emergent" situation turned out to be not-so-emergent once they realized they would have to go through the proper channels.