<p>I recently had day surgery as part of my breast cancer treatment. I was put in a cubicle (seperated by a curtain) and asked my whole health history.
Prior to the nurse and resident doing this, I listened to the man next to me being asked his history. I knew his name, why he was there and everything about him.
Halfway through mine I threw a bit of a fit. The nurse became upset with me and said she could take me to another room if I wanted to… but it sounded like a big chore. I told her to just give me the form ( I am a nurse at the same hospital) and I told her I would fill it out and she could initial it.
I asked to see her manager, who spoke with me after surgery and said they knew it was a problem and were working on it.
I think there are violating people’s privacy EVERYDAY!!! Well, this has become a crusade for me I emailed the VP and CEO of the hospital and I have caused quite a stir. My husband doesn’t quite understand why I am so upset and using my energy for this.
Am I nuts???</p>
<p>I think the problem (HIPAA violation) arises with publicly attaching your diagnosis, history and treatment plan to your name. This could be resolved, in curtained spaces, by verifying your name utilizing your patient ID band.</p>
<p>No, curtained spaces are NOT enough. No history should be taken by anyone from anyone where the patient in the next cubicle can hear the entire conversation, even if you are identified only by an ID. Because if you are known by your face to others, than this is not confidential. This is a violation, and the facility KNOWS it is. Problem is, it gets very expensive (absolutely no excuse) to put patients in individual rooms, or to use glass partitions. That is because once you divide the space with more than a curtain, and make the walls glass or plaster, minimum space and equipment and sink/faucet requirements come into play. And then that space requires more nursing and support staff, etc. You should have your history taken when you enter, ideally when you are dressed and sitting in a nice small office where the door can be closed and your information stays private. This is an option that is not as costly as putting every patient in an individual room. Then you move to the stretcher area where the only things they ask again might have to do with current meds, allergies, verification of surgical site and procedure etc. And those things can be done more quietly as well. </p>
<p>Raise a stir. It needs to be fixed. And the facility knows the fines are not anything they want to mess with. It often takes a heath care provider to become a patient to realize certain things…</p>
<p>HIPAA was not meant to be burdensome as much as it was meant to PROTECT your history in situations JUST LIKE THIS. </p>
<p>Many surgery centers get this info over the phone or at a preop visit now, so that this doesn’t happen. It is not proper to review your entire history separated from the world by only a curtain. Besides, patients are not likely to admit to certain things that the physician/anesthetist/nurse should absolutely know.</p>
<p>I would have thrown a fit and followed it up in exactly the same way. Your privacy and the privacy of the man in the curtained off area next to you were compromised.</p>
<p>No, you’re not overreacting. I could understand this sort of lapse in an emergency, but not in this situation, intake for a scheduled surgery.</p>
<p>It’s nice to see someone standing up against this. I applaud you!</p>
<p>Thank you, this validates my feelings. I felt very vulnerable and sometimes you question your judgemnet</p>
<p>Does it violate HIPPA when the office scale is in a central area, where other patients are waiting for a blood draw or to pee in a cup, and the nurse verbally states your weight before writing it down? Unfortunately , privacy doesn’t really exist anymore and laws and lawsuits can’t fix the problem.</p>
<p>I don’t know about the HIPPA question but you raise a very valid point. It’s uncomfortable to overhear another patient’s personal information and more uncomfortable to give yours when you know other non-medical people can overhear.</p>
<p>Of course, it doesn’t get any better when they put in the so-called ‘semi-private’ room with a stranger a few feet away from you when you’re at a point where you need your privacy the most and they hear and see everything that happens with you. There are a few hospitals that have made all rooms actual private rooms (and bill at semi-private rates) but there aren’t many of them. A motel 6 can manage to give far more space with a private bathroom for not a heck of a lot of money - you’d think the hospital that’s charging many hundreds or a thousand dollars a night for the tiny non-private space could manage it as well.</p>
<p>Feel free to bring that topic up as well. Even if it’s not covered by laws it should be considered as a matter of basic decency.</p>
<p>It’s been explained to me by a hospital administrator that the curtains are fine as long as there is a separation, even if voices can be overheard, and that the curtains pass government inspections. The difference would be seen as announcing someone’s problems over a loudspeaker vs speaking with them in a curtained-off area. The latter is considered acceptable by hospital standards.</p>
<p>PLEASE NOTE: THIS IS NOT MY OPINION, I AM JUST RELAYING IT. PLEASE DO NOT START TELLING ME THAT I HAVE THE WRONG OPINION. ONCE AGAIN THIS IS NOT MY OPINION IT IS A HOSPITAL ADMINISTRATOR’S. I AM JUST RELAYING IT.</p>
<p>It’s HIPAA not HIPPA. (I am assuming you are referring to the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act). HIPAA focuses on medical records especially those held electronically. I don’t know for sure, but an oral account of medical information is not likely regulated by HIPAA because it is not a record. Only once a record is created would the information contained in the record be subject to regulation.</p>
<p>Not overreacting - definitely a worthy cause to pursue - but I hope you don’t get too worked up about it while you are recuperating! Stress isn’t good for the healing process.</p>
<p>Sorry for the typo.</p>
<p>I agree with you, and think you should send a written complaint to the top hospital administrator and also send a copy to whatever agency oversees HIPPA compliance.</p>
<p>As part of our training in an HR/medical reimbursement type of situation, we were told that we could not call another department to discuss any issues concerning a payment, because the conversation could be overheard and would therefore violate HIPAA.</p>
<p>Both my husband and I have had medical procedures recently, and we both encountered the same sort of lack of privacy that you did. I think it’s a topic worth pursuing, especially if it really bothers you.</p>
<p>Even worse, in my opinion, is when the health professionals carry on a conversation about private medical matters with the patient with a family member in the room. This happened to my husband when he was given his discharge instructions after hernia surgery. I was in the room, and he was asked a question that he did not want to answer truthfully in front of me. He was placed in the awkward position of either having to lie to the nurse (and therefore receive inappropriate discharge instructions) or reveal something he did not want to reveal to a family member. This should not happen.</p>
<p>(For those who are wondering, what he did not want to reveal in front of me was that he had resumed smoking cigarettes after having quit earlier.)</p>
<p>Hospitals do things that are wrong. I had an experience when my son was hospitalized as a baby. I tried to explain to a patient advocate and social worker that there were certain things going on in the hospital that were allowing germs to be spread from my own child to others (I don’t want to get into specifics, but it was not proper). It took a lot of energy for me to complain at that time because I had gone without sleep for days, but it was for the best interest of others that I spoke up. It was a complete waste of time. I found complete indifference.</p>
<p>On the subject of curtains…we were in an emergency room in another state not too long ago. I found that the cubicles were not seperated with curtains. They had walls and a glass door instead, so it can be done.</p>
<p>I am a nurse also and I do not think you were overreacting. I have to stand at a computer screen at the foot of a patient’s bed to take a history. Not only can the person on the other side of the curtain hear, but if the patient is even slightly hard of hearing anyone in the hall can hear.</p>
<p>keymom,
I had a very similar expereince to you. I found out my cancer diagnosis in a curtained treatment area in the ER right next to two other people whose ages, diagnoses, etc. I also learned. One of the patients next to me had his family present, and his daughters weren’t much younger than I (and also had young children). When they heard my dx they were stunned into silence, too.</p>
<p>Good for you for saying something – I was too overwhelmed at the time to focus on much. We were lucky DH was together enough to get the kids picked up from school and fed that day.</p>
<p>In my case, I didn’t blame the ER so much (except for the chirpy ER doc who told me I had the “good kind” of leukemia!) as much as I did my internist, who knew darned well when she saw my blood work what I was facing and sent me to the ER unawares rather than tell me in her office.</p>
<p>If I were a patient and a medical professional working there, I think I’d feel even more proprietary about my privacy. Cancer already sucks without these piled-on indignities. Best wishes for an easy treatment regimen and a full recovery!</p>
<p>Here’s a response given by a HIPAA expert on a similar question to yours:</p>
<p>The HIPAA Privacy Rule is not intended to prohibit providers from talking to each other and to their patients. Provisions of this Rule requiring covered entities to implement reasonable safeguards that reflect their particular circumstances and exempting treatment disclosures from certain requirements are intended to ensure that providers primary consideration is the appropriate treatment of their patients.</p>
<p>The Privacy Rule recognizes that oral communications often must occur freely and quickly in treatment settings. Thus, covered entities are free to engage in communications as required for quick, effective, and high quality health care. The Privacy Rule also recognizes that overheard communications in these settings may be unavoidable and allows for these incidental disclosures.</p>
<p>For example, the following practices are permissible under the Privacy Rule, if reasonable precautions are taken to minimize the chance of incidental disclosures to others who may be nearby:</p>
<ul>
<li>Health care staff may orally coordinate services at hospital nursing stations.</li>
<li>Nurses or other health care professionals may discuss a patients condition over the phone with the patient, a provider, or a family member.</li>
<li>A health care professional may discuss lab test results with a patient or other provider in a joint treatment area.</li>
<li>A physician may discuss a patients condition or treatment regimen in the patients semi-private room.</li>
<li>Health care professionals may discuss a patients condition during training rounds in an academic or training institution.</li>
<li>A pharmacist may discuss a prescription with a patient over the pharmacy counter, or with a physician or the patient over the phone.</li>
</ul>
<p>In these circumstances, reasonable precautions could include using lowered voices or talking apart from others when sharing protected health information.</p>
<p>However, in an emergency situation, in a loud emergency room, or where a patient is hearing impaired, such precautions may not be practicable. Covered entities are free to engage in communications as required for quick, effective, and high quality health care.</p>