Was this a HIPAA violation?

Nurses General Nursing

Published

Hi all, I cross-posted this on the ARNP board as well. I'm an RN in ARNP school and am seeking more opinions, this is giving me an MI today. Thanks in advance!

****

Hi all, I'm an ARNP student and was recently reprimanded by an instructor for what she views as a 'possible HIPAA violation'. This is my last quarter as an ARNP student so this is a bit of a shock!

I learned that in order to share chart notes with instructors/etc that we could either photocopy or e-mail them, as long as all patient identifying data was not on there and/or had been blacked out. Pretty much all you can have is age and sex, not even a birthdate . So I sent a note about a patient to my preceptor the other day--a regular SOAP note with NO identifying information. All it included was a first initial, age, and presumed ethnicity--all of which I thought were ok. I got back a frantic e-mail from her saying she'd shared this with everyone at the clinic and the school and that it was to be investigated. I have sent DOZENS of e-mails just like this to various preceptors/instructors while I've been in school and have never had a problem. What did I miss?

Any advice much appreciated. Ugh. :-(

Up Vote Up Vote ×
+ Add a Comment