Lost patient list

Had a similar situation at the last medical center where I was employed in psych. A tech had left the patient roster in the day room they were using to jot down VS which was found by a patient's relative. In those days, room numbers and both the first and last names of the patients were on the list. The tech was reprimanded with a verbal warning and the roster, from that point forward, listed the first name and last initial only.

Your reporting to the DON was a prudent move, Maria, reporting the lost list after a search without result, which may motivate administrative officials to change the paperwork and procedure, in order to avoid a similar circumstance in the future.

It would seem a worse-case scenario here could be a possible HIPAA violation. Now, I use the word "possible" because, if no further ramifications result if and when the list was found, it's not an actual violation. It merely has the potential for a violation, and if never found, it's merely dust in the wind.

Maybe to ease your mind a bit more, Maria, a patient accidentally dropped a benzodiazepine tablet which I was in the process of administering to them in the dayroom. I searched for that pill exhaustively and never located it. In 40 years of administering meds, I was unable to find a lost pill only twice, the other time was a Seroquel in the unit's pantry.

I reported the situation, wrote up incident reports, and received no negative ramifications, and hopefully it will be the same for you.

Good luck!