violating HIPAA?

[michlynn]

Hello everyone! Just looking for some opinions on this situation... So, recently our hospital has made the change from sending a form over to telemetry with simply the pt's name, room number and reason for tele to printing off the nursing hand off report which includes PMH, medical record number, labs, vital signs, etc. They switched to this so every floor would be using the same form. Do you think this is a violation of HIPAA? I don't really feel like it's appropriate for tele to have THAT much info about the patient. What do you all think?

[MunoRN, RN]

It all sounds like information tele should have, and has been part of the information tele gets on patients everywhere I've worked and for good reason. Those in the tele room are allowed to think, that's actually why they are there, and to do that they need info.

[RNNPICU, BSN, RN]

Just as an aside. It can be helpful to have the MR number placed into the monitor the pt is connected to because a strip could be printed off, information can then be easily made part of the pt's chart.

I think it is important that people monitoring the monitors know something about the ot's, especially who might be sick, who may need closer observation, a room number can change easily, but if the MR is connected to monitoring devices, that information doesn't become lost if pt's transfer from place to place.

[michlynn, BSN, RN]

Just as an aside. It can be helpful to have the MR number placed into the monitor the pt is connected to because a strip could be printed off, information can then be easily made part of the pt's chart.

I think it is important that people monitoring the monitors know something about the ot's, especially who might be sick, who may need closer observation, a room number can change easily, but if the MR is connected to monitoring devices, that information doesn't become lost if pt's transfer from place to place.

Agreed but that's not what my facility does. Our techs do nothing with the MRN, at this point it's just extra info.

[BuckyBadgerRN, ASN, RN]

As long as care is being taken so that the information isn't being seen by those that have no legitimate need, then no, its not a violation.