Is this a hipaa violation?

[NurseRatchedTheBest]

A patient I had died of a heart attack.

[Nurse Leigh]

And??

[guest769224]

Yes. That's a HIPAA violation. [emoji23]

[Rose_Queen, BSN, MSN, RN]

That one single sentence? How would it be? Plenty of patients die as a result of a heart attack every day. No name, no age, no location, no identifying information at all.

[NurseRatchedTheBest]

My patient, a young male died of a heart attack due to a cocaine over dose, his mom fainted when she saw him while we continued cpr for another 20 minutes until she told us to stop. Am I closer to a hipaa violation rose?

[Whispera, MSN, RN]

unless someone knew where you worked, who you are, who your patients were, and put two and two together. Let's say Joe knows you work on 4S at XYZ hospital and his mom was a patient there and died.... it can happen. My mom was a patient that was talked about in the elevator I was in, with no name reference.

[NurseRatchedTheBest]

so its not a violation. It as assumption made by someone. There were no patient identifiers

[NurseRatchedTheBest]

you can assume it was your mom but it was really a patient from 10 years ago.

[Been there,done that, ASN, RN]

My patient, a young male died of a heart attack due to a cocaine over dose, his mom fainted when she saw him while we continued cpr for another 20 minutes until she told us to stop. Am I closer to a hipaa violation rose?

No need to be obtuse here. We are here to answer your question.

I am more concerned that you stopped resuscitation because mom said so.

[emtpbill, ASN, RN, EMT-P]

No need to be obtuse here. We are here to answer your question.

I am more concerned that you stopped resuscitation because mom said so.

Yea, that's not a decision left up to a family member.

[jdub6]

unless someone knew where you worked, who you are, who your patients were, and put two and two together. Let's say Joe knows you work on 4S at XYZ hospital and his mom was a patient there and died.... it can happen. My mom was a patient that was talked about in the elevator I was in, with no name reference.

I may be wrong but I believe violations are determined based on what was said and not who was listening. Unless what you heard was specific enough that you could be sure it was your mother and not, as someone mentioned, another pt with the same circumstances, I would think there was no violation. Also in this situation I think it's a bit more complicated...assuming you had access to details about your mother's situation, either through staff or through her, that no one outside her family would have, AND those details are the only reason you realized it was your mother being discussed, that is a rather unique situation, especially if you didn't learn anything private that you didn't already know.

I do not believe the examples given are a violation. Also in this sort of environment I would naturally assume that many stories have some detail changed (I'm asking about interpreter behavior for my LOL who speaks only Chinese when really it was a teen boy who spoke Spanish...no one knows what is real and what is changed except me) or that some pts described are compiled from multiple real pts.

I was always taught that HIPAA violations involve IDENTIFYING info (name, DOB, very specific description of the person, etc) combined with medical info. Hence, I can dispose of an empty pill bottle belonging to a pt in the regular trash at the nsg station if I obliterate name etc, I do not need to also obliterate the name of the med or the instructions.

[roser13, ASN, RN]

What is the point of this post that's about a 10 year old case?