Medical leave of absence confidentiality

[OmegaRN]

Hi,

This is something weird that happened and I am hoping that someone may have an answer or advice to give. Ok, here's how it started:

I applied for a transfer to work in psych from DOU because I have always been interested in the brain and I did so well in mental health and pharmacology in nursing school. I also have major depression and bipolar disease and took a leave of absence from work. HR told me that LOA is confidential and not disclosed when you apply for a position.

I met with the clinical nurse manager for the position and she hired me. I faxed the transfer documents to HR and I asked when should my return to work date be written. My doctor said that I can return and work part-time which is the position I applied for. The HR employee told me she would get back to me, which was on a Friday.

On Monday I had not heard from her. I was going to call her when I got a phone call from the HR manager asking me she needed the transfer documents. I said that I had faxed them earlier - it turned out that most of the HR staff was let go and the manager said she didn't know where the transfer document was.

So I faxed the same document to her. She added that she needed to have the return to work date for April 13th. She cc'd our email correspondence to the clinical manager, stating that I was on medical leave.

One question I have - was this a violation of HIPAA or some other privacy protection?

Here is what happened afterward:

After I faxed the return to work information to the HR manager, I emailed my hiring clinical manager and asked what would be my start date, schedule etc. I got an email from her (a short one) that they are "holding off hiring for this position at the moment" and to continue my current position.

Could it be that the clinical manager got "cold feet" when she was given my medical information and decided not to hire me? The position is still listed as open on the hospital website.

Another possibility: The hospital network that these two hospitals share has been rumored to have major financial troubles. Much of our HR staff is gone, and I heard that the JCAHO teacher was let go. A coworker of mine said that it was getting even more stressful on the floor - less support, the charge nurse was auditing our charting even more than before, write-ups, etc.

Is it possible these hospitals are about to go under? I was very happy to start this new position and making a contribution to patients with psychiatric conditions. I am confused and let down. I don't want to return to DOU/telemetry. I did my year of med/surg and I want to move on.

[MrChicagoRN, RN]

Hang in there

simply telling the psych manager is not a violation. For all they know, you had bunion surgery.

since most of the HR was terminated, there's some major belt tightening going on. There may be a freeze, or the manager may simply erring to be cautious about bringing anyone aboard till things loosen up.

[VivaLasViejas, ASN, RN]

Hello, and Welcome to Allnurses!

I know how easy it is to get a little paranoid about these things. I have bipolar too, and sometimes it seems like there's stigma hiding under every rock and behind every tree. In your situation, it probably is what people are saying it is---there are some major shake-ups going on and the hiring situation is very unstable. Try to take it at face value, and not drive yourself crazy wondering if your diagnosis has become common knowledge. It's nobody's business unless you make it so.