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The Patient was "IN" the surgery center having surgery... the person picking up was not the person that dropped off....
The policy is to contact the person picking up 30 minutes prior to expected discharge which typically works out great.
The procedure should have been in my opinion for the patient to have the center call the pickup person when he was ready to go. That would cover all the bases, I think.
I think it was inappropriate what she did and she should be reprimanded. By pointing to the guy in the room (and not your husband) then she has just told you the other gentleman's medical information.
Anyway... one patient said Pastor Wilson is going to pray with me before I go in... well... Pastor Wilson was not able to make it but sent Deacon Jeff... since Deacon Jeff was not on the list... we had to get permission from the patient who seemed a little miffed we were even asking... as was the surgeon because the patient refused to proceed without Pastor Wilson... turns out Deacon Jeff was acceptable so only delayed about 45 minutes...
I guess this is why HIPAA requires a Compliance Officer?
Of course the patient and surgeon are going to be miffed, but the situation was handled in a HIPAA-acceptable way. You don't want the patient coming back later and filing a complaint that Deacon Jeff showed up without permission and was heretic or whatever and shouldn't have been allowed to pray with him. I also don't like having to ride a wheelchair to the door after surgery when I'm perfectly capable of walking out on my own, but I understand the need to cover all their bases.
An organization is required to have a HIPAA Privacy Officer and a HIPAA Security Officer, but in small organizations these are usually the same person in my experience. Sometimes this is called the Compliance Officer (I was the Compliance Officer in the midsize agency I worked for). The Privacy Officer is the one who deals with requests for PHI, and staff behavior with regard to compliance; the Security Officer is responsible for ensuring the security and integrity of PHI data, both hardcopy and electronic.
The procedure should have been in my opinion for the patient to have the center call the pickup person when he was ready to go. That would cover all the bases, I think.
The pickup person did not have a cell phone and did not want to sit by his home phone waiting to be called. That was the problem.
HIPAA doesn't care about probability, or how "famous" someone is. They also don't know the intention of the person calling, as others have pointed out.
Yeah, provided the agency has documentation that the patient has permitted it. That's kind of the whole point, isn't it?
The intent of HIPAA is not to place obstacles in the path of people receiving medical care.
There is no reason that the surgery center could not have obtained permission from the patient for Jim to call them.
You actually focused on the fact that she may not be a nurse. Twice. And she may be an MA.
It wouldn't matter.
I didn't so much as "focus" on it as point out that Sheila Shay was assuming the person was a nurse when she may not have been. Ms. Shay goes on to pontificate that "a nurse of all people should know the boundaries".
Of all people. Some people assume that any woman who is wearing scrubs is a "nurse". This is untrue, especially in a doctor's office.
No, it doesn't matter what type of job title this person has, but this dump on nurses is inappropriate when you don't even know if the person is a nurse, that is, an RN.
Last edited by Katarina Witt; 02-17-2018 at 08:14 PM..
Yeah, so? That's consistent with what I've already said. Reread what I've posted.
None of those five sections prevent a patient at a surgery center from asking the center to allow a designated person to call the center and ask if the patient is ready to be picked up, which is what I have been saying all along. What did you think I meant?
I didn't so much as "focus" on it as point out that Sheila Shay was assuming the person was a nurse when she may not have been. Ms. Shay goes on to pontificate that "a nurse of all people should know the boundaries".
Of all people. Some people assume that any woman who is wearing scrubs is a "nurse". This is untrue, especially in a doctor's office.
No, it doesn't matter what type of job title this person has, but this dump on nurses is inappropriate when you don't even know if the person is a nurse, that is, an RN.
I assumed nothing. I READ THE ORIGINAL POST, where the OP clearly stated the person talking too much was a NURSE. Did you bother to read the post that started this thread??? I don't know why you decided to laser focus on me when I clearly had not ASSUMED anything, and clearly did not insult the nursing profession as a whole.
Pointing out that this particular nurse (as identified by the OP who was there in the office with her husband) should know better than to run her mouth is hardly "dumping" on nurses as a whole.
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