NO PRIVACY: HIPPA? What's HIPPA

Nurses HIPAA

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I'm so sorry I need to vent.

I work in a smaller hospital only about 300 beds, so everybody knows everybody. So anyway, in the past and especially in the last few months there have been many a co-worker ill, surgical or child-bearing in our hospital. There is no privacy! Everybody gossips about the employee or attempts to find out what's wrong. I am not even at work this week and I got a text message saying so and so is in ICU with DKA, BS-672. And I'm like how do you know all that? You don't work ICU??? I just think this is a violation. If I ever fall out at work, ship me off somewhere else!!!!!! These people are just nosy!!! Same thng happened last month when as co-worker delivered her first child. People were runnin in an out of the room just being bothersome. Hello, this is her first child, leave her be!! This is a violation of HIPPA!:crying2:

The practice I worked at most recently was owned by a hospital...in a very small town. We could be FIRED for looking at our OWN medical records (for instance, if I wanted to print off my own lipid profile results), let alone those of others for whom we did not have a direct NEED. Those IT dudes were not kidding around and a supervisor could request that IT run reports of anything accessed under your login if he or she suspected you'd been somewhere you didn't need to go.

Although sometimes it was inconvenient, I really appreciate that they took patient privacy seriously.

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Specializes in MH/MR, post-op, oncology, GI, M/S.
The practice I worked at most recently was owned by a hospital...in a very small town. We could be FIRED for looking at our OWN medical records (for instance, if I wanted to print off my own lipid profile results), let alone those of others for whom we did not have a direct NEED. Those IT dudes were not kidding around and a supervisor could request that IT run reports of anything accessed under your login if he or she suspected you'd been somewhere you didn't need to go.

Although sometimes it was inconvenient, I really appreciate that they took patient privacy seriously.

The hospital I work at just changed their policy to allow us to look up our own medical records. We can even access our family members' info if our name is on a signed consent for the patient/family member. I think this is because our society feels that access to our own medical information is crucial. I applaud my network for making this change.

As for other co-workers, I can see where the privacy is a huge issue, and it should be protected. There is a point where the compassion a nurse extends to their patients eventually crosses over to concern for a colleague; but professionalism demands that we do not give in to this impulse and look up other people's files without consent. That said, because I work in a community hospital which is part of a large health network, there is a culture of "well-wishing" which inspires card showers, visitation, and mindfulness whenever a co-worker is ill. These would be turned away if HIPAA was followed to the letter. I have no solution, but I never liked HIPAA, I don't see its utility, and I think there should be a provision in the law which diminishes the "badness" if the intent was to send hope or well-wishing to the patient/victim.

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Today the person cutting my hair told me a story of an obvious violation but it was not deliberate. Her husband had surgery and was given a stack of discharge instructions. She was going through the stuff when she started to realize something was wrong. It turns out that only the top page of the papers had her husbands name on it. The rest belonged to a totally different person with the same first name as her husband. She was disturbed on two levels because she knew the if she had the other guys info someone had her husbands info. She was also disturbed because it could lead to medical error. OK, we all know this stuff happens but the question is what do you do about it?

I had a similar thing happen. I got some papers from my child's therapist. It was basically her OT/speech eval that I had asked for. The cover letter was for my child, but the entire eval was someone else's child!! I was concerned for that child whose eval I had, and my own child whose eval was now in someone else's hands!

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HIPAA is very important and I am glad it is in place. Patients and that includes co-workers should and do have the right to medical confidentiality. If someone wants you to know they are having surgery, etc. they can let you know. If they want you to visit after they have a baby or a surgery they will tell you to stop by. If they want to share their illness with you they will. NEVER look in their records even if you are concerned for them. It's none of your business and if your employer is diligent you can and will be fired if found out.

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I'm so sorry I need to vent.

I work in a smaller hospital only about 300 beds, so everybody knows everybody. So anyway, in the past and especially in the last few months there have been many a co-worker ill, surgical or child-bearing in our hospital. There is no privacy! Everybody gossips about the employee or attempts to find out what's wrong. I am not even at work this week and I got a text message saying so and so is in ICU with DKA, BS-672. And I'm like how do you know all that? You don't work ICU??? I just think this is a violation. If I ever fall out at work, ship me off somewhere else!!!!!! These people are just nosy!!! Same thng happened last month when as co-worker delivered her first child. People were runnin in an out of the room just being bothersome. Hello, this is her first child, leave her be!! This is a violation of HIPPA!:crying2:

You'd better believe it!! Our information technology staff puts "tracers" on all sensitive records, such as employees who are patients or VIP's, and if someone not directly caring for the patient accesses the record, that person is given a warning. Continued violations can lead to termination of employment.

I've gotten a warning because I looked at the record of a patient that I had cared for but had transferred out of the unit and I just wanted to see how the patient was doing . . . I was told in no uncertain terms . . . DO NOT SNOOP!!

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Specializes in ED, CTSurg, IVTeam, Oncology.

hipaa? why bother, we should instead just use facebook as the universal medical record repository. that way we won't even have to bother asking our co-workers, we can just look up everyone else's business on line. heck, some of the more dramatic or humiliating stories can likely generate loads of advertising income, right? we can solve this health care crisis with sale of celebrity med records to the press. better yet, the surgery that screwed up would be great for those ambulance chasing lawyer ads (you know the ones where they claim to have won millions for their victims)? we can even put really nasty heart breaking pictures of cleft palates, ambiguous genitalia, or how about the ancephalic neonate who only lives for several minutes and then dies, huh? that ought to tug at some heart strings, eh?

this was obviously sarcasm, gallows humor, crude joke, tongue in cheek witticism, ad nauseam. but really, the amount of nosy workers in the health field is truly astounding, cutting across all levels of care givers and providers. it never ceases to amaze me, the amount of delight that some seem to derive from reading or hearing of the pain of others. they then all stand around with exaggerated looks of sadness, saying "aww... the poor thing..." i mean, talk about munchausen by proxy; get a life, will you?.

:uhoh3:

upon hearing such stories, here is a hipaa responsible answer that anyone can use: "why are you telling me of a patient's private information when you know that i'm not involved in his or her care? you realize that i'm now duty bound to report this, don't you?"

you should see the look on some of the gossipers' faces when i say the above. :eek:

hmm... maybe that's why i'm always the last to find out anything at work, lol...

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Specializes in Peds/outpatient FP,derm,allergy/private duty.
As soon as I see "HIPPA" I think of hippos splashing in a river. Just FYI, it's HIPAA.

I've been amazed recently taking my mom to hospital that people call out from the reception desk, "Mrs So-and-so is here for her xxxxxx". Mom's always like "Gee, thanks for telling everyone!"

. . . while in Spanish-speaking countries, it would technically be just the girl hippos that were the HIPPAS, whereas the boys would still be the HIPPOS and. . . sorry I just couldn't help myself. :o

HIPAA is really a very interesting subject, because it seems to have spawned almost a religiosity beyond what is actually simply the letter of the law. All in all it's not a bad thing, especially with EMR making it easier for people at remote locations to access your records without anyone really noticing.

Yes, it really is something to have your supervisor shout down the hall after you've finally conjured up the nerve to have someone at work check something that requires a pelvic exam, "READY, DOCTOR!! it's not a _____ , it's just a ____!!!" referring to your external genitalia. . . :mad:

If it's rampant at work, it means that the managers and administrators aren't taking it very seriously, and that's where the change has to start. There are lots of places that won't even let an ER nurse check back on a patient admitted to ICU to see what happened to them after they were admitted there.

To the person who said that a strict enforcement of HIPAA would curtail baby showers, well-wishers, cards, etc-- is it a violation of your policy to even pass along something like, "so and so was in a car accident" or "delivered baby 2 mo. early" sort of generally? If something like that happens- I hope they wouldn't object to that being repeated. People like to start prayer circles, make meals, stuff like that to support their co-workers.

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As for well wishing, I've always followed this rule for coworkers that I've cared for. If it's something I know because I'm their friend/coworker, and they don't mind me sharing, then I'll share. If I think it might at all be something I know because I was their nurse, I keep my mouth shut.

I cared for a coworker that had breast cancer. We were always worried about her, passing along last we'd heard about how she was doing. There were times I'd have to just say when someone asked me, "I haven't heard anything that I can share." Because what I knew was what I'd read in the chart. I'll admit that I'm a huge gossip, and open my mouth more than I should, but when I'm entrusted with information as a nurse, I keep my mouth shut.

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I have to agree that the well-wishing, card-sending, shower-throwing is NOT a reason one should be able to access someone else's medical information. People have been visiting friends and sending cards when in hospital for ages...without any chart access. People who want you to know about their ______ will make it known through family members, church friends, and coworkers as they see fit.

One problem on the horizon is the ability to access records from other agencies, which has the potential to be great for continuity of care but is also a minefield! Int he small town where I worked there was (is) a push to get all the physician practices onto the same "brand" of EMR so the info could be shared. That way if a woman used services of an OB/GYN, a family nurse practioner, and a psychiatrist, each could view the others' records as long as an electronic signature was on file. So...say when I worked for that office we had an employee who was normally seen in our office for things like colds, sore throats, etc., but who now suspects she has been exposed to an STD. Where can she go for care that will ensure her records can NOT be seen by her coworkers, supervisors, etc? In cases such as this we may be delaying or blocking access to care for those who are very concerned about confidentiality.

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Specializes in PICU, NICU, L&D, Public Health, Hospice.

I am in total agreement with many others whose comments uphold the HIPAA and the importance of maintaining excellent privacy for our patients, coworkers, and ourselves.

I am often out of the gossip loop because I directly but politely ask people why they are telling me this "bit of info" that I have no NEED to know. (As in..."why are you telling ME this? It is none of my business") I even did this in church one day when the woman sitting next to me began to "share" something with me about another church goer.

I have never worked for an employer who took HIPAA lightly and, frankly, my experience is that if this behavior becomes known by the management it could likely result in termination.

Professional nurses should be taking a stand on the side of professionalism in the workplace.

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I'd say it was about half a year ago I went to my son's old Ped. I had been requesting his shot record for weeks. Then I finally got a call saying they found it and I could come pick it up. Alright, cool... I get there, I see the top sheet has his name and mine... Sign it out and wish them fair well (I was switching my son over to my family doctor, because his Ped office smelled like urine and feces, plus so much more). I get out to my car, where my Mom and my son are sitting there, look at his second paper which was meant to be his shot record... I noticed not all the shots were filled in and started to get really p'd off. Then I noticed it was another child's shot record. Needless to say, I walked right back and infront of the whole waiting room I stated. "Excuse me, but these records are NOT my child's. These belong to another child. May I actually have my son's shot records?" They were embarrassed and other parents were not to happy.

I got his records and went straight to my doctor's office, where my son now has the same doctor as I do.

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I have to agree that the well-wishing, card-sending, shower-throwing is NOT a reason one should be able to access someone else's medical information. People have been visiting friends and sending cards when in hospital for ages...without any chart access. People who want you to know about their ______ will make it known through family members, church friends, and coworkers as they see fit.

One problem on the horizon is the ability to access records from other agencies, which has the potential to be great for continuity of care but is also a minefield! Int he small town where I worked there was (is) a push to get all the physician practices onto the same "brand" of EMR so the info could be shared. That way if a woman used services of an OB/GYN, a family nurse practioner, and a psychiatrist, each could view the others' records as long as an electronic signature was on file. So...say when I worked for that office we had an employee who was normally seen in our office for things like colds, sore throats, etc., but who now suspects she has been exposed to an STD. Where can she go for care that will ensure her records can NOT be seen by her coworkers, supervisors, etc? In cases such as this we may be delaying or blocking access to care for those who are very concerned about confidentiality.

Someone I know complained of a similar problem to me. The fact that he had SUCCESSFULLY sought treatment for a perscription drug treatment ended up on such a grid. I know that info can be pertinent to his treatment for other medical conditions but the chances of that info ending up in wrong hands and affecting his life is really great, especially when it it just out there like that.
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