Stupid, Silly HIPAA
I’m reminded of the stupidity of HIPAA today, as I walked into a nurses’ station where all the medical charts are, dressed in a tie and slacks (no white coat or name badge) and no one asked me a thing.
Dressed appropriately, you could do this in any hospital in the United States and no one would question a thing.
HIPAA does not protect anyone’s privacy, it just makes a paperwork hassle for you and your doctors.
Not a medical professional, but I have always said that HIPAA was a conspiracy of the paper and photocopier industries.
I have actually questioned people who are looking at our charts. If I don’t see an ID badge, or if I can’t tell that they are obviously MDs (mostly they’ll have scrubs on or dansko shoes…I’ve even seen residents wearing scrub pants with fleece tops, if I hadn’t looked down I would have questioned someone on Sunday!) I’ll be inquiring as to how I can help you!
What’s there a movie about this with Leo DiCaprio? ;)
Ok, maybe slacks and a nice shirt will let a guy look at a chart without question; but I’d bet you that if I, a woman, walked up in dress-casual clothes and no coat that I’d be grilled in a heartbeat. At least that’s how it is here in the deep south.
Recently I visited a friend who was in the hospital for surgery. I got on the elevator, rode up to his floor, passed the nurses station and went to his room with no one asking me anything. And there, in a holder on the wall under his name and next to his room door was his chart.
I guess to me the importance of privacy is that the hospital not release info on me to anyone other than people I designate and that my medical data not be turned over to pharmaceutical companies. If they want data on patients they can PAY for it.
I had to do chart studies in school the night before clinical on the patient i’d have the next day. I got questioned quite a few times, scolded once for not wearing a name tag, and shifty looks from some. Then again I was a 19-22 yr old female. I completely agree with the door charts though! (although again, while looking at my next patients door chart the nurse came up and asked me who i was and why i was looking at the chart.
i hated chart studies.. we weren’t allowed to bring home any identifying info and yet we had to have a report typed up in the morning.. we all printed out their MARs and Careplans and brought them home anyway. I was careful to bring them back for shredding though.
Dallas reader, was your friend’s name seriously posted outside the room?! That’s a serious no-no in Vermont.
Actually, I’m not sure the law says everything we’re told it says. After all it the health insurance and portability act, which allows people greater mobility with their insurance, or something like that. But everyone’s gotten so hung up over the confidentiality part. Of course, all it takes is a good faith effort to safeguard your patient’s confidentiality. The rest is the effect of legislation that gives leeway for interpretation. And the lawyers at your hospital, who are more to blame for the silliness. They have to justify their retainers.
You could walk into any hospital with a suit and tie and actually walk out of the place carrying a chart without one person asking you a thing. Hell, you could take the thing to Kinkos, copy it, and then take it back without much of a problem at all.