Prospective employee's psych hx

[ashleed]

It was revealed to me by my assistant nurse manager that she and our nurse manager had looked up to see if a prospective employee had a mental health history with us. We are an inpatient mental health unit connected to a community mental health center. Despite a good interview, they chose to look because the interviewee had mentioned a few things that had led them to believe that she had been there before. They were unsure if she had been there to visit someone or had been a patient herself. It turns out she had been a patient and was diagnosed with borderline personality disorder. Unfortunately, there is a lot of stigma associated with the disorder and this prevented her from being hired. I can't help but feel that this was wrong even though it may have caused us problems should she had been hired. I'm curious as to how other people would handle this information. Thank you for your time.

[Ruas61, BSN, RN]

Of course it was wrong, illegal as hell and unethical.

It makes me wonder what other shenanigans they may do or have done.

I find a morbid sense of irony in it that those in the psychiatric field did such a thing.

What to do? I have to think on that. You tell on them, it's hearsay at this point unless they can track it electronically.

[SHGR, MSN, RN, CNS]

Of course it was wrong, illegal as hell and unethical.

It makes me wonder what other shenanigans they may do or have done.

I find a morbid sense of irony in it that those in the psychiatric field did such a thing.

What to do? I have to think on that. You tell on them, it's hearsay at this point unless they can track it electronically.

If they have an EHR, of course it can be tracked electronically. Yikes.

[nurseprnRN, BSN, RN]

Illegal, as in, major HIPAA violation, check, reportable to the feds. Immoral and unethical, check, reportable to the Board of Nursing. You bet they can track access to the chart electrically. Go for it.

[jadelpn, LPN, EMT-B]

This is just wrong on a number of levels. Unfortunetely, since they let you in on it, you have a duty to report it. Equally, your NM's part in not hiring this person due to a medical condition. That is discriminatory.

It is a huge violation to "look up" anyone on an EMR. I am not all together sure, however, there MAY (MAY) be some places of employment that in fact have a consent form which allows occupational health acccess to medical records, however, not many. Additionally, there are physical forms that need to be filled out and signed as accurate that do ask if one suffers from mental illness (among many other things). But that is for the powers that be to figure out.

The only thing that you can do is report that you were told these things (which BTW poor managment that they are sharing this with staff). You MAY want to cover yourself and give a call to your malpractice insurance for some guidance on how to proceed. You did not ask for this information, I am sure you would rather not know this information, however, now that they have made you a party to their bad behavior, you are unfortunetely left to respond to protect yourself.

Unfortunetely this crosses a huge boundry. There are many, many non-discrimination laws that would be on this applicants side.

[Esme12, ASN, BSN, RN]

Wow...they were very wrong...if that interviewee asks for her chart to be audited...they will be in big trouble. I'd call corporate compliance.

[KRVRN, BSN, RN]

Wrong, very wrong. It's a HIpAA violation so you should report it.

[HouTx, BSN, MSN, EdD]

Agree . Wrong on sooooo many different levels. Since OP has first hand knowledge of this HIPAA breach, s/he has a professional/legal obligation to report it or risk culpability also.

[sapphire18]

You need to report this. Put yourself in that prospective employee's place.

[Big Blondie, ASN, BSN, MSN, APRN]

Wow...disturbing.

[msygrnbw]

It's funny how we wouldn't hesitate to recommend our patients seek counseling or treatment for mental health, yet when it's one of our own, we're critical. Incidents like this discourage health professionals from seeking the health care they need - And who knows, despite their illness, with the appropriate treatments, they could be one of the best nurses you've ever met. I really encourage you to report this - it is not only a clear privacy violation, but a disturbingly common judgment I would love to see disappear from our health care/profession.

[KelRN215, BSN, RN]

This is illegal on multiple levels. It is very likely a violation of the Americans with Disabilities Act. Employers are prohibited under federal law from discriminating against employees on the basis of a disability. This is likely reportable to the EEOC as well.