Need advice on ethics

Nurses HIPAA

Published

If a CNA takes a picture of a deceased resident, is it still a HIPPA violation? It was not posted to any social media that I am aware of, but it was shown to coworkers in the facility. I am unsure of what to do, but it isn't sitting right in my conscience.

Specializes in Critical Care; Cardiac; Professional Development.

Absolutely it is a violation. Even if they had not shown it around it was a violation. That they did makes it very black and white.

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Specializes in ORTHO, PCU, ED.
There is no justification whatsoever for taking a picture of a deceased patient and circulating it around the workplace. Not just because of HIPAA either. It's a violation of their right to be treated with dignity and compassion. I hope this incident will be reported and the guilty person loses her/his job.

Ditto. Nothing more to add. Someone needs to be fired.

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Specializes in Critical Care.

If the only information the photo reveals about the patient is that they died then no, it's not a HIPAA violation, it's super-creepy, but not a HIPAA violation.

In the culture most of us our familiar with it's not acceptable behavior, but it's worth noting that post-mortem portraits used to be quite common in the US, and it's still common in a number of cultures. Basically, the deceased in propped up weekend-at-bernies style and a last set of pictures is taken, sometimes alone, sometimes as a family style portrait.

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