looking up a patients arrest records?

Nurses General Nursing

Published

A co-worker mentioned she did this and was telling me about some previous arrests of our patients. Is this illegal? It seems very unethical. what should i do?

Specializes in psych, addictions, hospice, education.

It's not illegal to look up public records on a patient. I believe it IS illegal to share what's learned with other people.

What is the purpose of the sharing? Gossip? If the looking-up is done on work time, it certainly isn't part of scope of practice nor is it part of job description. A manager might not take kindly to such on the job practices. Does this nurse have too little to do otherwise?

Is my attitude showing strongly enough?

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Specializes in FNP.

I think that is all a matter of public record. What I don't get is why anyone would give a crap and spend their precious time bothering to look it up, lol.

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Specializes in LTC.
is the co-worker doing this on work time?

No of course not :p

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Specializes in Nephrology, Cardiology, ER, ICU.

I live in IL and IL does record background check on ALL residents and employees.

I look up some pts individually as I often have to do Section 8 housing and people with felonies don't qualify as convicted sex offenders don't either.

I don't do it for all my pts, only where I have a specific need.

I also deal with the county jail and getting meds for my pts when they are incarcerated.

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Specializes in School Nursing.

I'm just wondering here...you obtained the patient's name through your duties as a nurse. You then use that name outside of the work setting to look up the corrections info. Could that be considered a HIPAA violation? Same as taking home a brain sheet with patient name, except the patient info is stored in your head, and then later put into your computer? Not that something like that could easily be proven, but it's just a thought that popped into my head.

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I'm just wondering here...you obtained the patient's name through your duties as a nurse. You then use that name outside of the work setting to look up the corrections info. Could that be considered a HIPAA violation? Same as taking home a brain sheet with patient name, except the patient info is stored in your head, and then later put into your computer? Not that something like that could easily be proven, but it's just a thought that popped into my head.

This thought has come to mind several times in regards to HIPAA. How else would a person know to have an interest in any particular name? May be stretching it a bit, but I do think it falls under the area of HIPAA policies.

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Just because you know someone's name and choose to look them up does not involve disclosure of protected information. But telling someone that you have a pt named Joe Jones is! And info that you gather from these sites is already public.

It does seem a bit unusual, however, and what exactly is the purpose of looking up your patients on these sites? Will you treat them any differently? Does their health care differ because they stole a car 10 years ago? I don't get it....

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Specializes in Critical Care/Coronary Care Unit,.

I work at a county hospital and we get patients all the time from the jail and who are about to go to jail (come in handcuffed and escorted by police). Personally, I think looking up an offenders record is ok since it's public knowledge. If you treat your patient differently because of what you find, well that's different.

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Specializes in School Nursing.

My thought was that it might fall under the "portability' part of HIPAA. Technically you are taking private information outside of the healthcare setting. Although, again, not sure how it can be proven or why anyone would have a need to. It is just one of those gray areas that gets my brain turning.

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Specializes in Spinal Cord injuries, Emergency+EMS.

nice to see that the land of the 'free' is it's usual small minded petty self as usual, the land of the free, if you can afford it and 'fit in' with the views of the bigot in the street ?

with respect to the Patients who are Prisoners, the nature of the Institution is all you need to know ( for instance the closest prison to where I work is not our 'local' prison - that'sin the next city, the closest prison is a Cat A one consequently we know that all the prisoners from there have been convicted of serious crime ) unless there is a specific issue which the Prison Officers will share with you are part of the joint risk assessment between the two organisations ...

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Specializes in ICU, MICU, SICU.

I look up my patients all the time, especially the ones that give me creepy feelings. I don't do it at work, and they are free to look me up too. It's public record.

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Specializes in Emergency.

On occasion, we get inmates on our floor. A lot of people like to look up what they were arrested for, but I feel like doing that clouds your care. For example, we had a pt recently that needed chemo. He had a guard with him 24/7 and was shackled to the bed. But a couple of people looked up his record & saw that he was in prison for sexual abuse of a minor. As a result, had a few people refuse to care for him.

Somehow, it just doesn't seem right to me. YMMV, of course.

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