4 Things You Can Tell The Police Without Violating HIPAA

HIPAA Rules. Is there anything in medicine that is more commonly misunderstood? I was recently involved in a pretty tense scene where several drunk friends tried to assist in the resuscitation of their drunk, half drowned buddy. By the time we were done, there were multiple patients, multiple TASER deployments and several of our local law enforcement officers requesting written statements from all crew members involved. While we sat around the E.R. break room, filling out forms in triplicate, the predictable HIPAA question was asked. What can we say in this statement? Can I just write, “Information protected by HIPAA?” The short answer is, no. It isn’t professional or cooperative to simply throw up the HIPAA flag as soon as a law enforcement officer requests information about your medical scene. And it’s also incorrect. There is a bunch of information that you can legally provide to the police. 1) Any information that your state laws requires you to disclose. State laws often include provisions that require EMS to disclose information regarding certain types of situations and medical conditions. In many states, you are required to tell the police about stab wounds, gunshot wounds, assault wounds, child abuse and elder abuse. These disclosures aren’t necessarily related to physical injuries. Know what types of information disclosures your state mandates. None of these disclosures are a violation of HIPAA. If your state requires the disclosure, you...
Source: The EMT Spot - Category: Ambulance Crew Authors: Tags: Knowledge slider Source Type: blogs