RE: HIPAA privacy and telephone

[Lawson, Pam]

This is exactly what my physician does.  When I have lab work at his
office, I am given a slip of paper that has dial-in instructions, the
pin number and my code number and when I can expect for the results to
be available.  I dial-in and listen to my physician's pre-recorded
message to me regarding the results of my lab work and any comments
about it.  Only if the results are really "bad" does the doctor or
nurse personally call and discuss the results (and this is prior to
the results being available on the dial-in system).  I like the system
since there is no phone tag, I can listen to the results when
convenient for me, don't have to worry about family members accidently
erasing the message and I can listen to it again (for up to so many
days).  The only down side is when the doctor does call you know
immediately that it is not good news.

-Original Message-
From: Ribelin, Donald [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] 
Sent: Friday, January 17, 2003 11:47 AM
To: WEDI SNIP Privacy Workgroup List
Subject: RE: HIPAA privacy and telephone


A but who said anything about calling back and getting a human?
Call back, get the robot, type in the secret code (pin), get the
recording with the nurse and/or physician's message about my lab work.


Donald 

 -Original Message-
From:   Benjamin W. Tartaglia [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] 
Sent:   Friday, January 17, 2003 12:17 PM
To: WEDI SNIP Privacy Workgroup List
Subject:RE: HIPAA privacy and telephone

With all due respect, and I mean it sincerely.

Good idea for privacy Based on my many years of management
engineering and the application of voice, data and image
telecommunications systems in healthcare as an employee and later as a
consultant I suggest it is unworkable. (really long and ill structured
sentence).

The major premise is "When the patient calls back, someone who can
accept the call and pin number is available".  The major premise,
although well intentioned, is false.

When I try to get to my Doctor's office, I get a call management
system 99% of the time.  If I'm really lucky, I may get an answering
service.  People who work for many answering services are part timers,
sometimes from temporary employment companies, working for minimum
wage, with little or no healthcare background.  Try and get them HIPAA
certified. (I have also done consulting on Doctors' answering
services.)

I believe such a system would simply generate round after round of
call backs which are unsuccessful.  If anyone thinks this would
actually work, should get another opinion and only pay for that
opinion when the system is proven effective.

I really would like to talk to the people who have used this
successfully so that I might add to my professional knowledge and
moderate my opinion on he matter or... is this simply a "scenario"
from a brainstorming session?

Additional comments are welcomed and desired.  I find I learn more
from people who disagree.

Ben Tartaglia
Benjamin W. Tartaglia, MBA, BSIM, CSP
Director, Client Services
BWT Associates, HealthCare Consultants

HIPAA, JCAHO, Telemedicine, Contingency Planning, Telecommunications,
Telephone Fraud & Abuse, Training Programs, Policy & Procedures,
Management Audits.

PO# 4515, Shrewsbury, MA 01545
Phone: 508-845-6000
EMail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]

-Original Message-
From: Ribelin, Donald [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]]
Sent: Friday, January 17, 2003 10:09 AM
To: WEDI SNIP Privacy Workgroup List
Subject: RE: HIPAA privacy and telephone


So far, the best scenario I have seen is the phone call that requests
the patient to call back to the office.  Part of the call back
involves a pin or secret code that the patient was provided
previously.

Donald L. Ribelin
HIPAA Project Manager
Firsthealth of the Carolinas
(910) 215-2668
[EMAIL PROTECTED]

 -Original Message-
From:   Doug Webb [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]]
Sent:   Friday, January 17, 2003 9:51 AM
To: WEDI SNIP Privacy Workgroup List
Subject:Re: HIPAA privacy and telephone

An extension to this -- how do you handle answering machines?

My gut feeling is that either a no-no (the machine more questionable
than a family member) -- the information could only be released to the
patient or his/her representative designated in a written
authorizaton.  Perhaps another signature on your main
consent/authorization form to allow these types of communications is
what's needed???

The opinions expressed here are my own and not necessarily the opinion
of LCMH.

Douglas M. Webb
Computer System Engineer
Little Company of Mary Hospital & Health Care Centers [EMAIL PROTECTED]

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Strictly no report patient and family notification

[Lawson, Pam]

Title: Strictly no report patient and family notification





I would like to know how others are handling this scenario that has been brought up as a result of working on our facility directory policy:

We have a policy that patients admitted as a result of an act of violence (gunshots, stabbing, assault/abuse, domestic violence, etc) are automatically admitted as a "strictly no report" patient.  If the patient is awake and alert, they have the opportunity to change this status to a report status, but unconscious patients are left as strictly no report.

This creates problems for us in that we are trying to locate family members and when they call, they are told that there is not a patient here by that name...we are a 700 bed facility so these calls can come in anywhere and the problem is really a result of this process being decentralized.  But, there is a solution that we are working on that requires some modification to our admitting software and our other programs so we think we can work around it with our existing software and with some training and have a process that still protects the patient while allowing us to make contact with the appropriate family members.

My question is, how are other facilities treating these types of patients in regards to their report status...the others hospitals in our area apparently do not routinely admit these types of patients as "no report" (even if unconscious) and some do only if the police tell them to.  If we changed our policy to reflect this approach, it could conceivably eliminate much of our problem except in cases where the police say to keep them no report or if the the health care provider decides that it would be in the best interest of the patient to leave them a no report.  

Thanks Pam
Pamela K. Lawson, RHIA
Information Security Coordinator
St. John Health System
Tulsa OK
918-744-2316
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
pager 918-643-2725
 





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