You are at work in a healthcare facility. You happen to notice a nurse practitio

Question

You are at work in a healthcare facility. You happen to notice a nurse practitioner reviewing the medical records of her ex-husband. You also know that there is no authorization on file granting additional access to this record. Should the nurse be terminated? To whom should this be reported (e.g., the husband, the state board of nursing, HHS)? What actions must the employer take? Find the applicable law and cite it. Do any exceptions to the law apply to this fact pattern? How? What additional facts might lead to a different conclusion? What would that new conclusion be? Explain.

Explanation / Answer

Laws under HIPAA and HITECH clearly mandate that the protection of patients’ health information is critically important. Disclosing and using protected information is against HIPAA standards. The nurse clearly violated this law. Usually all medical practitioners, including nurses are educated about this law.

The nurse can be sued under intentional tort. Intentional tort in healthcare occurs if intentionally a professional is accessing the medical records of a patient, with hidden motives.

Action can be taken against the hospital authorities as well as the medical records must have restricted access and the nurse accessing the same, is a clear carelessness on their part.

Exception to this law can be if the ex-husband was suffering from a critical disease and needed immediate attention. There was no one who could disclose his medical history. The nurse accessed his files to get his medical history. In this case, the intention of the nurse was to help the patient, under extreme conditions, so then it can be taken as an exception. However, the nurse needs to prove the same in the front of the medical authorities or court, which can be quite difficult.

Related Questions

Navigate

• Browse (All)
• Browse Y
• Subjects

Integrity-first tutoring: explanations and feedback only — we do not complete graded work. Learn more.