Welcome to Our
Emergency Department
Some reminders about
Patient Confidentiality and Trust
Welcome to Our Office, Our Patients!

We are proud to have you join our ED, our
patients.

You are entering our
world of patients and
their very personal
medical problems.

Be respectful.
We want to be a part of your education

We want to help you achieve your objectives
in this clinical experience in our ED.

But even more, we want to help you evolve
in your goals of becoming
an excellent health
professional.
We welcome you…

To the joy and responsibility…
…of caring for our patients and their families.

One responsibility is to abide by HIPAA rules that
guide patient confidentiality.
H.I.P.A.A.= The Federal Health
Insurance Portability & Accountability
Act of 1996/2003

HIPAA rules were invented to…
 Balance between improving the flow of information
 While protecting the privacy of patients.

The patient has the right to…




Request
Request
Request
Request
access to health info.
to amend their health info.
restrictions to information sharing
accountability of disclosures.
HIPAA rules require us to….

Treat all things we learn about patients as
confidential
- We can’t tell anyone else

Provide more control to patients over their
personal health information

Punish those who misuse
patient information by
imposing criminal & civil
penalties
HIPAA rules say….

You can’t talk about patients outside of the
ED with anyone

Clinicians should only access the medical
information that is needed for their
job/clinical experience.

We need patients to give permission before
we can give information to others on their
behalf… part of informed consent

Keep medical records in a secure
place-both paper & electronic.
If you are using electronic medical
records….

You should have a unique password-don’t
share with others

Do not access information on yourself, your
family, your friends, staff or any other person.

You have a duty to report any breach in
confidentiality to your supervising doctor.
Remember most computer systems can track all access
to records.
Inappropriate access is punishable by federal and state law.
You may see more information on-line

Find the entire HIPAA privacy summary; sign up for alerts
www.hhs.gov/ocr/privacy/index.html

See examples of privacy agreements & training materials
www.insidehopkinsmedicine.org/hipaa
www.shadow.med.unc.edu
www.privacyrights.org
www.infoscope.mcw.edu/FileLibrary/GroupInfoScopeHIPAA
/MCW_HIPAA_Booklet.pdf

Georgetown guides give rules for state by state records
http://hpi.georgetown.edu/privacy/records.html
Let’s suppose …

You saw your teacher in the waiting room…..
…you are not allowed to tell anyone else
Let’s suppose…

You really worked a lot with one patient and
got to know them well in the ED …
…You must not e-mail or “befriend” them
on Facebook or other social networking
site.
XXX
This is a ‘professional’ relationship, not a social one.
Let’s suppose …

You were very excited to see a patient’s case
and you take the elevator to lunch with the
nurse…
…You are not allowed
to talk about it in the
elevator around others.
We welcome you …

Together we can do more…
...to care for our patients & their families.
You will need to sign our
confidentiality agreement
at Orientation.
Thank you….
Welcome to our practice!