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.
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| State Hospital Sanctions Employees for Disclosing Patient's PHI Covered Entity: Health Care Provider / General Hospital Issue: Impermissible Disclosure A nurse and an orderly at a state hospital discussed the HIV/AIDS status of a patient and the patient's spouse within earshot of other patients without making reasonable efforts to prevent the disclosure. Upon learning of the incident, the hospital placed both employees on leave; the orderly resigned his employment shortly thereafter. Among other actions taken to satisfactorily resolve this matter, the hospital took further disciplinary action with the nurse, which included: documenting the employee record with a memo of ...read more |
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