Pro Bono: Can You Really Protect All Patient Information?

Patient privacy can only go so far Many communication practices play an important role in ensuring that a patient receives prompt and effective prehospital healthcare. Due to the nature of these practices, as well as the unique environment of EMS field medicine, the potential exists for the patient’s protected health information (PHI) to be disclosed “incidentally.” Incidental disclosure is part of the normal course of providing care to the patient, or, put another way, is “incident to” that care. A bystander may overhear an EMS provider’s conversation with another provider about the patient, see the care that’s being provided on scene, or overhear patient information being communicated to the hospital. These would be considered incidental disclosures. The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) isn’t intended to impede these customary and essential communications and practices. The regulations don’t require that all risks of incidental disclosure of patient information be eliminated. Instead, HIPAA adopts a common-sense approach, and permits certain incidental uses and disclosures of PHI to occur—as long as your agency has reasonable safeguards in place to minimize disclosures and protect the patient’s privacy. REDUCE Incidental Disclosures Pay attention to who may be within earshot when making verbal statements about a patient’s health information, and follow common- sense procedures for avoiding accidental or inadvertent disclosu...
Source: JEMS Administration and Leadership - Category: Emergency Medicine Authors: Tags: Columns Administration and Leadership Operations Source Type: news