question about patient confidentiality

[acn1023]

hi all,

i have a question re confidentiality or HIPAA. my bestfriend and i work in the same hospital but different units. she works in the ER and i work in med surg. most of her patients go to my unit (not necessarily my patients).. my question is, is it safe for her to talk about her day to me just to relieve stress or just as friends? such as, i have a 20 year old woman come in today with bleeding, we guessed it was from an abortion. she does not tell me the name of the patient etc, but sometimes i can guess who she is talking to as that patient was transfered to my unit. is that a violation of something? i was wondering what can we and can we talk about?? thanks.

[caliotter3]

If there is no reason for her to be discussing the patient with you, that is, she is not giving you report on the patient when transferring the patient to your ward, she should not discuss, to be on the safe side. If a third party were to overhear this and report it, both of you could get into trouble. It is just best to play it safe. Why give any third party the chance to get you into trouble? There are a lot of people who go around and report things like this. Just be safe. Talk about the weather or your kids, when you are in the hospital, or out in public, for that matter.

[Ginger's Mom, MSN, RN]

You can talk about your day in general, how busy you are, difficulties with paper work, issues with supplies etc.