What would you do?

[mom4josh]

My friend was recently in the hospital. While she was there, she told me that she had heard the nurses at the station giving report... about her! I told her that that was a serious violation of HIPPA laws, and she (not a nurse) just blew it off and said she didn't care and that it didn't bother her. Well, it bothered me, because if she could hear, then probably other patients could hear about her and she could hear about other patients.

My question... would you call the hospital and report this or would you let it go? If you would report it, who would you call?

[nerdtonurse?, BSN, RN]

Gee whiz, so I guess instead of yelling "call a code to 42!" out the door to a passing unit secretary because the Code blue button in the room DIDN'T WORK, I should have walked to the station and whispered it in her ear?

Good Lord.

[mom4josh]

Surely you don't believe that EVERY single report you have given has been completely confidential. I can assure you, somewhere along the way, someone who is not authorized has probably heard you say something about a pt. quote]

Yes, someone did overhear report at our nurses' station several years ago. The person heard "he's probably going to die today" and it was totally blown out of proportion. However, it was then that we were forced to use any available office, break room, or whatever so as to not have report overheard ever again.

Thanks to all who responded. I get the message. Case closed!

Mods, you can close this post now if you would please!

[jlmb214rn, BSN, RN]

First of all, I wouldn't report it. (To answer the original question)

But only because the patient in question didn't overhear anyone else's information, and I'm assuming that she didn't feel like someone else overheard hers. However, I do believe report at the nurses station is a no no. I don't care where you work, you should have an area, be it the breakroom, dictation room, etc. that is away from the public ear. Bedside report should be just that, bedside. You shouldn't be out in the halls around public ears. With patients in semiprivates, the verbal report should be done in a seperate (private) area, and then go to the room to look at drains/dressings/iv's. That being said, I'm suprised at some of the replies to this thread (as they seemed a little hostile to me)