Pt information at HOME

Altra, BSN, RN · May 29, 2008

My thoughts ...

I think this will become the norm in the near future. HIPAA enforcement will not focus on the fact that an employee accessed the system from a remote location, but will focus on what records specifically were accessed.

In many hospital systems, managers can keep tabs on their unit's census & activity from home and sometimes are even encouraged to do so.

Virgo_RN, BSN, RN · May 29, 2008

Perhaps it was a mistake. Did you contact your hospital's computer department about it?

Trauma Columnist · May 29, 2008

It is probably a mistake. I'm an APN at five hospitals - I can access 4 hospital systems from home. However in order to do this, had to go thru each hospital's IT dept to get approval. Helps much when on call.

november17, ASN, RN · May 29, 2008

on their unit's census & activity from home and sometimes are even encouraged to do so.

No joke. Our manager has called at 10pm at night and told the charge that they need to get their butts moving to get some admits from the ER before midnight or an RN would be going home early/hell to pay.

All thanks to computerized charting! Whee

I don't really think it is a hipaa issue. Hipaa doesn't have a clause dictating where you can access information from.

The fact of the matter is that you should utilize your common sense when accessing records - look over your shoulder just like you'd do at a hospital.

Change your password often, and don't have a dumb password like, "12345" or "abcde" or something.

widi96 · May 29, 2008

I can access more information from home than I can when I am on the unit working. When working I can only access information from my unit. Do to HIPPA (we were told) we are not able to access any information from another floor. But from home I can access the entire hospital. I can kind of understand the managers, etc needing this information, but why do the US, CNA's, and floor RNs? There is no good reason I can come up with to have this information.

We used to have a program where (while at work) we could pull up a screen that told us, for example how many patient's were in the ER and what their complaint was and what triage level they were - names were blacked out. I think this was a good system because nobody but the ER needed to know the names of the people, but it was nice for the rest of the hospital because we could look at the ER screen and have an idea at any given time how many admissions we were going to get. But again, this was just accessed from work.

chevyv, BSN, RN · May 29, 2008

I'm amazed by this info. Can you imagine how many people will access patients info at home and who only knows will be viewing it. View the wrong stuff and one could be fired, all from home. When I'm at home, I don't want to be 'working', I don't even want to check my work email. I'm not sure I like this trend too much.

Kthale81 · May 31, 2008

Hi all. I have recently come accross something I find disturbing. Our hospital is transitioning to computerized charting, which is great. They have also set up a system in which we can check our hospital e-mail from home (also great, since a lot of us do schedules in which we get 8 days in a row off every couple of weeks). So I went to the website yesterday to download what I needed to to be able to check my e-mail at home. What I got was WAY more than expected. Not only did I have my e-mail - I had the entire hospital charting system. I could access information (pt name, diagnosis, H&P, labs, etc.) for any patient in the hospital from my comfy little computer room. This just absolutely astounded me. Why would we (ANY STAFF) need this information at home? Not to mention, internet stuff gets hacked all the time - I really wouldn't want my information out there like that. I called and left a message for my boss and called and let the nursing supervisor know, but she thought that that was how the system was suppose to be set up. Has anyone ever heard of this? I can't imagine it being kosher for us to have all that information at home. Major HIPPA issues. Has anyone heard of anything like this?
(I'm a staff nurse on a regular hospital floor so it's not like I'm doing home health or do any type of work from home)

I have heard of physicians being able to access pt records and give orders from home or office. Nurses and/or other staff I wouldn't think so, since that is not needed from home. Getting email, time stamps, paycheck info, etc is the most I have heard of employees being able to get online from home. I would think it is a mistake. I would contact the IT department.

**canoehead, BSN, RN** · May 31, 2008

It may be just a bump in the IT dept too. My manager can access info from home, but I can't. When IT was setting us up we had a day that info from 5 different hospitals was available when we logged in, but it was fixed quickly (including a psychiatric hospital). Give it a few days.

lpnstudentin2010, LPN · May 31, 2008

Patients point of view here:

It depends whose info you would access. If I had a nurse previously in my stay, I am ok with her knowing what is happening. Especially if it is likley that I will still be there the next time she works (thus I would more then likely have her again).

If a nurse on another floor were to access it then I might have a problem, unless I was being transfered to that floor and that person would be my nurse.

Pretty much use common sense and I am fine with it.