Ebola patients and HIPAA

FUTURE · ‎04-11-2010

Maybe this has been discussed on this board, but as a health car worker myself, I'm wondering how the media is reporting SO much information on these patients and their health care status. The dr that was diagnosed yesterday in NY, they reported his temperature, and I'm wondering if that information came from his girlfriend or a friend he told, or if it's coming from the hospital/health care worker. If the latter, that's a HIPAA violation. Other bits of info on their medical status throughout their treatment is being reported. I think about Thomas Duncan, who might not have even been well enough to let the hospital know what information he might want released. Just a thought I'm having as I'm listening to CNN this am and all of the health information EVERYONE seems to have on all of these patients, and wondering if it has crossed anyone else's mind. And, yes, I understand that 98% of the information given about these people is not ablation of HIPAA standards -- it's just personal or professional information.

brii · ‎06-20-2010

I think the patients themselves are giving consent to the hospital to release the information.

AngusandBuddhasMom · ‎03-10-2010

Glad I am sticking with local news since they seem to have a better grasp on this then the cable networks.

reese2 · ‎03-10-2010

I think reporting the person's temperature at the time of the 911 call is pretty much a matter of public record.

If you notice, once the Dallas nurses were actually admitted as patients, no real details of their conditions aside from the standard "critical" "fair" "good" were released.

FUTURE · ‎04-11-2010

On 10/24/2014 Caravaggio said:
Glad I am sticking with local news since they seem to have a better grasp on this then the cable networks.

I haven't been watching much in the past 7-10 days. It was Ebola overload, for sure. The sensationalizing just got to me after a while.

AngusandBuddhasMom · ‎03-10-2010

On 10/24/2014 FUTURE said:
On 10/24/2014 Caravaggio said:
Glad I am sticking with local news since they seem to have a better grasp on this then the cable networks.

I haven't been watching much in the past 7-10 days. It was Ebola overload, for sure. The sensationalizing just got to me after a while.

ITA!

FUTURE · ‎04-11-2010

On 10/24/2014 reese2 said:
I think reporting the person's temperature at the time of the 911 call is pretty much a matter of public record.

If you notice, once the Dallas nurses were actually admitted as patients, no real details of their conditions aside from the standard "critical" "fair" "good" were released.

I didn't realize the temp was on the 911 call. I've cut back on my news watching in the past several days, but thanks for clarifying that!!

FUTURE · ‎04-11-2010

On 10/24/2014 brii said:
I think the patients themselves are giving consent to the hospital to release the information.

That's what I was leaning towards, brii, and certainly hope that's the case!

millieshops · ‎03-09-2010

Most of the information they're giving doesn't do a single thing to make us safer anyway. I wish the media would just stop!

Of course ebola is a serious challenge, but when all is said and done because of this hysteria, we're going to have wasted millions of dollars as well as thousands of healthcare professionals' hours doing things we didn't need to do. The dollars and hours could well have been spent elsewhere.

I was so happy to hear my own doctor's reassurance (and scorn for the hype) when I was in his office yesterday. One of the treatments we did was a flu shot. My county requires the doctor to report to them that he administered my flu shot. I never would have known that had he not told me! Where is the media on flu? Right. They'll hype that after the first 5,000 have died this winter! Shame, shame.

brii · ‎06-20-2010

On 10/24/2014 FUTURE said:
On 10/24/2014 brii said:
I think the patients themselves are giving consent to the hospital to release the information.

That's what I was leaning towards, brii, and certainly hope that's the case!

I imagine that's the case.

His fiancée's name and the name of his friends who are in quarantine haven't been released. They probably haven't given permission.