02-08-2009, 08:05 PM
Doc, I understand about the intention of the HIPPA law, but many times it is left to nurses, staff and doctors to interpret the law and with that I guess it can become chaotic.
I think KJ was right about "Brain-dead policy and brain-dead procedure (application) of said policy, all due to over-litigation and over-fear of litigation. kj.
I found these articles of interest. Some very strange interpretations of the HIPPA law.
"Mr. Rothstein, one of Hipaa’s harshest critics, has led years of hearings across the country. Transcripts of those hearings, and accounts from hospital administrators, patient advocates, lawyers, family members, and law enforcement officials offer an anthology of Hipaa misinterpretations, some alarming, some annoying:
¶Birthday parties in nursing homes in New York and Arizona have been canceled for fear that revealing a resident’s date of birth could be a violation.
¶Patients were assigned code names in doctor’s waiting rooms — say, “Zebra” for a child in Newton, Mass., or “Elvis” for an adult in Kansas City, Mo. — so they could be summoned without identification.
¶Nurses in an emergency room at St. Elizabeth Health Center in Youngstown, Ohio, refused to telephone parents of ailing students themselves, insisting a friend do it, for fear of passing out confidential information, the hospital’s patient advocate said.
¶State health departments throughout the country have been slowed in their efforts to create immunization registries for children, according to Dr. James J. Gibson, the director of disease control in South Carolina, because information from doctors no longer flows freely. "
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/03/health....html?_r=1&hp
Also this which is really rediculous about the horses if you read the entire short article.
A few months ago I was stuck in a HIPAA nightmare when my mother, who is over 700 miles away from me, was rushed to the hospital for a medical emergency. Each day I called and got an update. That is until she was discharged early. When I called the hospital and was told that she had been discharged, they would not tell me where she had been discharged to since that would violate HIPAA regulations. It did not matter that they had told me that she HAD been discharged and that I was speaking to a nurse about her condition every day. Now I could not find out anything because they had no way of proving I was indeed her son.
I was relating this story to the mother of one of my daughter's friends, who happens to be a teaching veterinarian in the Large Animal Clinic at the University of Georgia's College of Veterinary Medicine. As she was laughing with me about the absurdity of the situation, she told me that they apply HIPAA regulations to their 'patients', especially horses.
http://www.controlscaddy.com/A55A69/bcca...BYE-6394CW
I think KJ was right about "Brain-dead policy and brain-dead procedure (application) of said policy, all due to over-litigation and over-fear of litigation. kj.
I found these articles of interest. Some very strange interpretations of the HIPPA law.
"Mr. Rothstein, one of Hipaa’s harshest critics, has led years of hearings across the country. Transcripts of those hearings, and accounts from hospital administrators, patient advocates, lawyers, family members, and law enforcement officials offer an anthology of Hipaa misinterpretations, some alarming, some annoying:
¶Birthday parties in nursing homes in New York and Arizona have been canceled for fear that revealing a resident’s date of birth could be a violation.
¶Patients were assigned code names in doctor’s waiting rooms — say, “Zebra” for a child in Newton, Mass., or “Elvis” for an adult in Kansas City, Mo. — so they could be summoned without identification.
¶Nurses in an emergency room at St. Elizabeth Health Center in Youngstown, Ohio, refused to telephone parents of ailing students themselves, insisting a friend do it, for fear of passing out confidential information, the hospital’s patient advocate said.
¶State health departments throughout the country have been slowed in their efforts to create immunization registries for children, according to Dr. James J. Gibson, the director of disease control in South Carolina, because information from doctors no longer flows freely. "
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/03/health....html?_r=1&hp
Also this which is really rediculous about the horses if you read the entire short article.
A few months ago I was stuck in a HIPAA nightmare when my mother, who is over 700 miles away from me, was rushed to the hospital for a medical emergency. Each day I called and got an update. That is until she was discharged early. When I called the hospital and was told that she had been discharged, they would not tell me where she had been discharged to since that would violate HIPAA regulations. It did not matter that they had told me that she HAD been discharged and that I was speaking to a nurse about her condition every day. Now I could not find out anything because they had no way of proving I was indeed her son.
I was relating this story to the mother of one of my daughter's friends, who happens to be a teaching veterinarian in the Large Animal Clinic at the University of Georgia's College of Veterinary Medicine. As she was laughing with me about the absurdity of the situation, she told me that they apply HIPAA regulations to their 'patients', especially horses.
http://www.controlscaddy.com/A55A69/bcca...BYE-6394CW