Hospital fined for breach of octuplet mom's privacy

http://www.cnn.com/2009/US/05/15/octuplet.mom.hospital/index.html

LOS ANGELES, California (CNN) -- The hospital where a California woman gave birth to octuplets in January has been fined $250,000 by the state because nearly two dozen medical workers, including doctors, illegally viewed her medical records, according to state health officials.

Nadya Suleman was the subject of controversy after giving birth to octuplets in January.

Kaiser Permanente's Bellflower hospital, where Nadya Suleman's eight babies were born, revealed in March that 15 employees lost their jobs and eight others were disciplined for improperly accessing her computerized medical records.

There was no evidence that information from the medical files was leaked to the news media, which has intensely covered Suleman's story, according to Kathleen Billingsley, deputy director of the California Public Health Department's Center for Health Care Quality.

Six of the privacy breaches happened at other Kaiser Permanente facilities, which are linked into the same computer system housing medical records.

Suleman -- already a single mother with six children -- gave birth to octuplets conceived through in vitro fertilization, fueling controversy. News of her collecting public assistance for some of her children outraged many taxpayers.

• Hospital fined for breach of octuplet mom's privacy - LMT
  • Also done to various entertainers at UCLA sm - darlene

The messages you are viewing are archived/old.
To view latest messages and participate in discussions, select the boards given in left menu

Also, is it a large teaching hospital? If so you have to consider there will be A LOT of different residents dictating, usually a lot of ESLs at teaching hospitals, and the residents rotate out and new ones rotate in every summer. So you can't expect to get the same dictators and build up your macros because the dictators change all the time.

I would say 9 cpl would be a pretty good offer for a small to medium community hospital where you will be doing the same dictators on a daily basis.  But for bigger, urban or teaching hospitals I would want at least 12 to 15 cpl. 

Its is all getting so frightening, the invasion by companies into peoples lives.  I have worked at nine hospitals, two trans companies on-site, three trans companies at home and never have I had a background check OR drug screen.  The policy for drug screening at the hospitals was if you seemed like you were under the influence your boss could request a drug screen but never happened to ME or any of my coworkers.  Physical exam, sure I got those when I worked at the hospitals but they paid for the physical exam and they also covered me for insurance.  The trans company I work for now does not provide medical coverage or life insurance coverage for statutory employees, so I dont see why they would be concerned about my health status.  Lets face it, they are concerned with how much we can pound away each day and that is it.  We get paid for what we produce.  So under these circumstances, they dont need to be poking their nose IN my background, my urine or my physical body.  If it is checking on my experience, well they already did that by talking to previous employers and coworkers and guess I passed the test, as I was hired.

it only cost $2/month extra - today I think it costs $19.95 but to me it's worth it because #1 it cuts all telemarketer calls (and I have been on the Do Not Call list since that began) and I can also take my phone charges off my MTSO business at tax time......

call your phone company and ask them if they offer anything like Privacy Director.  *S* 

I do occasional IC work for a provider that I have known a while now. Today i did some work for her and found something that really bothers me. The physician dictates the patient's full name, street address and home phone number in addition to her DOB. Is that HIPPA compliant? I'm sorry folks but I really don't want my street address and phone number available across the internet even if it is "so called" secure. I would like your thoughts.

...requires a covered entity to make "reasonable efforts to limit use, disclosure of, and requests for PHI to the minimum necessary to accomplish the intended purpose."  The only AHA-approved HIPAA training program, HIPAA Academy, specifically states in its training materials that HIPAA intends that personal information be limited to document headers unless absolutely required   I will quote page 4-56:

"In practice, we expect the minimum-necessary requirement to lead to compartmentalization of the medical record so that one portion of the record (the body of the report) may be readily disclosed for one purpose without compromising the privacy of the entire record."

By limiting PHI to headers, reports can easily be redacted of personal information; when the PHI is scattered throughout the reports, this information cannot be redacted.

the healthcare provider , i.e. the doc, establishes the standards for protecting privacy of records. You (or your service) is the Business Associate who COMPLIES with whatever standards the doctor sets. Some docs send files by email, some want encryption. Hospitals, obviously, generally do more locking down on their stuff, as they are more open to lawsuits. All YOU have to do to be HIPAA compliant is to COMPLY witih the standards the doc sets. It is not up to you to set them. Also what you and everyone else forgets about HIPAA is it is a two part process. Not only does the patient's medical records have to be disclosed BUT the patient must also suffer a loss because of the disclosure. So even if your doc stands out on the street and tells passers-by about Mrs. So and So and her athlete's foot, unless she incurs a loss from that, it's not a HIPAA violation. Remember this whole thing came about because a pharmacy tech went home and told her high school son that another classmate's father was coming in for HIV drugs...get the picture? Something private was disclosed inappropriately and that's how the girl found out her father was HIV positive.

nm

but no O/T.  But you could get on there and do BONUS MINUTES at 6/cents a line all you wanted.

I always felt like that should have been illegal.  If I'm working, then I'm working.  If I'm an hourly employee - then anytime I'm working!!!!! I should be an employee and thus paid HOURLY WAGES.  But they got away with it.  Sort of a hybrid deal.

They screw us any way they can.

  (good little screws all in a row)

 (Medical Records Supervisor yucking it up drinking coffee, practicing snapping her whip)

(Me at the end of the day saying WHY AM I HERE?????)

At least with the hospitals out here in the west, they always have posted salary ranges and you can usually always exept with decent experience to start in the middle somewhere and reach the top in 5 years.  Worked in HR in a large hospital for a bit.  They always post the salary ranges here with positions and with that you go in with a bit of knowledge.   I never did see one start at the top though.  Good luck. 

That's good pay and bennies to boot!!! I would die for that.

I worked for a hospital as an IC for many years at home. That's the only way the hospital bigwigs would allow it, not employee status.  Never ran out of work except in the first few weeks in a new year. Never had "just the junk" as some suggested. I did the same work as everyone else. I tried to get my employee status back (which I was once) but no luck. I was at home. Some rule about that, but I was happy.

I'd go back to my hospital in a flash. My buddies want me back. The boss wants me back. For some reason, they still won't give me employee status. That sucks. ('scuse my French).

Don't even THINK about what to do, DO IT. You'll never be sorry.

I work full-time from home for a local hospital and am paid per hour.  I also work an IC on a part-time basis.  I would say if you need the benefits and steady paycheck and can handle working possibly rotating weekends and holidays, yes.  The only good thing with working with some nationals is having the flexibility with your schedule but you will NOT make a steady income.  You will constantly run of out work, loose money and find yourself clocking in and out all day long just to make 8 hours.  With a hospital, you know that the work will be there everyday and if you have downtime, you will still get paid.  Also, having that security in knowing that you can speak to management face to face or over the phone. Go for the hospital, because I know a lot of MTs wished they could have that opportunity.  Go luck to you!!!