Hospital Issues Guidelines Regarding Disclosures to Avert Threats to Health or Safety
Hospital Issues Guidelines Regarding Disclosures to Avert Threats to Health or Safety
Covered Entity: General Hospital
Issue: Safeguards; Impermissible Uses and Disclosures; Disclosures to Avert a Serious Threat to Health or Safety
After treating a patient injured in a rather unusual sporting
accident, the hospital released to the local media, without the
patient’s authorization, copies of the patient’s skull x-ray as well as a
description of the complainant’s medical condition. The local newspaper
then featured on its front page the individual’s x-ray and an article
that included the date of the accident, the location of the accident,
the patient’s gender, a description of patient’s medical condition, and
numerous quotes from the hospital about such unusual sporting
accidents. The hospital asserted that the disclosures were made to
avert a serious threat to health or safety; however, OCR’s investigation
indicated that the disclosures did not meet the Privacy Rule’s standard
for such actions. The investigation also indicated that the
disclosures did not meet the Rule’s de-identification standard and
therefore were not permissible without the individual’s authorization.
Among other corrective actions to resolve the specific issues in the
case, OCR required the hospital to develop and implement a policy
regarding disclosures related to serious threats to health and safety,
and to train all members of the hospital staff on the new policy.
| Health Sciences Center Revises Process to Prevent Unauthorized Disclosures to Employers Covered Entity: General Hospitals Issue: Impermissible Uses and Disclosures; Authorizations A state health sciences center disclosed protected health information to a complainant's employer without authorization. Among other corrective actions to resolve the specific issues in the case, including mitigation of harm to the complainant, OCR required the Center to revise its procedures regarding patient authorization prior to release of protected health information to an employer. All staff was trained on the revised procedures. ...read more |
| Large Health System Restricts Provider's Use of Patient Records Covered Entity: Multi-Hospital Healthcare Provider Issue: Impermissible Use A nurse practitioner who has privileges at a multi-hospital health care system and who is part of the system’s organized health care arrangement impermissibly accessed the medical records of her ex-husband. In order to resolve this matter to OCR’s satisfaction and to prevent a recurrence, the covered entity: terminated the nurse practitioner’s access to its electronic records system; reported the nurse practitioner’s conduct to the appropriate licensing authority; and, provided the nurse practitioner with remedial Privacy Rule training. ...read more |
| Private Practice Revises Policies and Procedures Addressing Activities Preparatory to Research Covered Entity: Private Practice Issue: Impermissible Disclosure-Research A private practice physician who was the principal investigator of a clinical research study disclosed a list of patients and diagnostic codes to a contract research organization to telephone patients for recruitment purposes. The disclosure was not consistent with documents approved by the Institutional Review Board (IRB). The private practice maintained that the disclosure to the contract research organization was permissible as a review preparatory to research. Activities considered “preparatory to research” include: preparing a research protocol; developing a research hypothesis; ...read more |
| Outpatient Surgical Facility Corrects Privacy Procedure in Research Recruitment Covered Entity: Outpatient Facility Issue: Impermissible Uses and Disclosures An outpatient surgical facility disclosed a patient's protected health information (PHI) to a research entity for recruitment purposes without the patient's authorization or an Institutional Review Board (IRB) or privacy-board-approved waiver of authorization. The outpatient facility reportedly believed that such disclosures were permitted by the Privacy Rule. OCR provided technical assistance to the covered entity regarding the requirement that covered entities seeking to disclose PHI for research recruitment purposes must obtain either a valid patient authorization or an Institutional Review Board ...read more |
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