Samuels had worked for the Miami-based Jackson Health System since 2016, the station reported. Become a Part of the Nurse.org Community! Nurse Katie Duke has been featured on two seasons of the reality medical drama, "New York Med. Download PDF. An attorney told WFOR last month that Samuels not only breached the newborns privacy, but also violated the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act. She took her loss and won! What happens when a nurse breaches confidentiality depends on the nature of the breach and the reason for it. All links on this site may be affiliate links and should be considered as such. I was told I was being fired for being insensitive, she said. Breach News We have nurses like the ones from Emory University Hospital Midtown who believe your tribulations are trivial and act as if your presence as a patient is an annoyance. Learn how your comment data is processed. Marian Weber, a travel nurse in Alaska, said the not-for-profit PeaceHealth rescinded her contract after she raised a concern about patient safety. It highlights just how easy for nurses to make an error that could cause them to lose their job. In New Jersey, Jersey Shore University Medical Center fired nurse Adam Witt on March 31 and barred him from entering the hospital campus after he and others posted in a private Facebook group about their fears of contracting COVID-19. Although HIPAA has whistleblower provisions to protect employees who report HIPAA violations directly to HHS Office for Civil Rights, you may be required (by your employer) to file a report internally before taking any further action. Definitely would make me think twice, however. If you are a patient (or family member), the first thing to find out is if the nurses employer is a HIPAA Covered Entity. As a nurse, it's important to know what you can and cannot post on social media. The thirst for social-media attention is generally accompanied by a mentality that rationalizes its acceptable to hydrate the ego at any cost, cheapening the value of decency, decorum and professionalism. Who really gets fired over social media posts? We studied hundreds of I am a nurse in NYC, have worked at Columbia, Katie and I have mutual friends, I am very familiar with the operations of the nursing unions in NY, and I have had this conversation with other nurses here. However, if the nurse has a long history of accidental HIPAA violations and has been warned previously about their future conduct, the sanction could be a written warning or termination of contract. Most of the nurses that get into trouble have good intentions but they just dont know how far reaching social media can be, Spector said. It seems so many people want to denigrate Katie Duke, from her choice to post the photo being discussed to the measurement of her waistline. In the video, another nurse says her "ick" is when the mother says she doesnt want pain medication but you are at an eight out of 10 pain. Another nurse says: "The dad comes outside and asks for a paternity test right outside the room door., One of the nurses talks about family members coming up to the nurse's station every five minutes and the father going room to room between one baby mama and your other baby mama., Emory Healthcare said the video was "disrespectful and unprofessional," and does not "represent our commitment to patient-family-centered care.". A criminal complaint was filed and the nursing assistant faces up to three and a half years in jail if convicted. The pediatric ICU/ER nurse worked at Texas Childrens Hospital and posted a series of comments on Facebook about a rare case of measles at the hospital. It was poor choice for Katie to post this particular social update. An official from Texas Childrens Hospital confirmed the nurse lost her job as a result of violating hospital policies and federal laws by posting protected health information on social media, and not for her anti-vaxxing views. 2 Kelly Morris Credit: Instagram Why was a nurse suspended over her TikTok videos? It is a violation of HIPAA to share EMR login credentials because, under the Administrative Safeguards of the Security Rule (45 CFR 164.308), Covered Entities are required to implement procedures that record system activity including who accesses systems containing ePHI and when. Without knowing the answers to these questions, it is impossible to determine who is at fault for the accidental disclosure. All elements of dates (except year) for dates directly related to an individual, including birth date, admission date, discharge date, date of death; and all ages over 89 and all elements of dates (including year) indicative of such age, except that such ages and elements may be aggregated into a single category of age 90 or older. If you are a colleague of a nurse who has violated HIPAA, you should be guided by your employer`s procedures for complying with HIPAA. learn from my mistake.. A nurses viral TikTok video did exactly this as she recorded herself melodramatically acting shaken with the caption Lost a patient today. Four days after the nurse was suspended the decision was taken to fire her for the HIPAA violation. The nurses at Emory University Hospital Midtown were participating in a popular trend where users share their "icks" or turnoffs about a person. If a nurse violates HIPAA by accident, it is vital that the incident is reported to the person responsible for HIPAA compliance in your organization the Privacy Officer, if your organization has appointed one or your supervisor. They say that nursing is a calling, and my mother was called to the field. Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment. We can all learn from her mistake and her perseverance. Nurse who 'vented' online found guilty of professional misconduct It can be used to hold people to account for discriminatory views, comments or actions. Yesterday, a nurse employed with Salem Health posted a video on social media which displayed cavalier disregard for the seriousness of this pandemic and her indifference towards physical. The HIPAA Privacy Rule places restrictions on the allowable uses and disclosures of protected health information. If you practice medicine you know this. Serious violations of HIPAA Rules, even when committed without malicious intent, are likely to result in disciplinary action, including termination and punishment by the board of nursing. "Dont play with peoples lives. This would explain why the MD did not get fired for posting the same photo (without patient identifiers) but Katie did. "My ick is. Receive weekly HIPAA news directly via email, HIPAA News Posting any protected health information on social media websites, even in closed Facebook groups, is a serious HIPAA violation. Some disclosures that may be considered breaches of confidentiality are permitted by the HIPAA Privacy Rule when Protected Health Information is disclosed to (for example) public health agencies, law enforcement officers, and employers. Criminal prosecutions are rare, although theft of PHI for financial gain is likely to result in up to 10 years in jail. Cancel Any Time. We now, however, have in some hospitals a generation of nurses who discard normal ethical nursing behavior to chase after adulation from strangers. The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA) gives patients rights over their health information and sets rules and limits on who can look at and receive patients health information. Nurses are held to the highest standard in their jobs and profession. Nurses sacked after posting pictures of themselves online wearing You can also lose your nursing license for continued HIPAA violations if you have been warned about your conduct and provided with additional training and your employer reports you to a licensing board. If they are that thirsty for attention, they should quench their thirst in another profession. Examples of HIPAA violations by nurses are difficult to come by on HHS Office for Civil Rights breach report because many HIPAA violations by nurses usually affect fewer than 500 individuals so are not publicly reported. The firing of a New York City nurse for her social media use has reaffirmed the hazards of healthcare workers bringing their work online, according to ABC News. HITECH News A good rule of thumb is to keep work and private lives separate, and never to post any information about patients on a social media platform, even if you do not think that a patient could be identified from the post. Man vs 6train gave identifying information to the public about a patient (she said it was the man who was hit by the 6 train; she didnt need to post his name as the media will have already taken care of that); her account identified where she works (thereby identifying that the person is being treated in her hospital cant release that info to anyone unless the patient or family consents doubt she got a release) and the actual picture showed the type of treatment the patient received (its a stretch but any person with reasonable medical knowledge can figure out what kind of tx the pt received). Florida nurse fired after posting photos of baby born with birth defect HIPAA-covered entities are likely to report such incidents to law enforcement and investigations will be launched. In my humble opinion, this type of social media is insensitive and inappropriate. Top Student Loan Forgiveness Programs for Nurses, Top Nursing Interview Questions & Answers, How to Create a New Graduate Nurse Resume, Best White Shoes for Nurses and Nursing Students, Best Stethoscopes for Nurses and Nursing Students, How to Work in the US as a Foreign-Educated Nurse, Why Nursing is a Great Career Choice for Men, Healthcare Administration Salary & Career Guide. No nurse is immune to penalties resulting from inappropriate social media sharing. While the RN never mentioned the patient's name or other information, it isnt every day that a person is hit by a subway and thus a connection could have been made between the Instagram picture and news report involving a specific patient. Because none of us are perfect. She is able to get back up when she is kicked down and I have no doubt that she will deal with it and come out better for it in the end. The failure to report a minor violation could have major consequences. If a nurse breaches confidentiality for a purpose not permitted by HIPAA, the consequences can depend on whether the breach was well-meaning (i.e., in celebration of a patients recovery) or malicious (i.e., to demean a patient). Katie Duke is a no-nonsense kind of nurse who has a personal motto of deal with it. It may even be her nursing motto. }); Show Your Employer You Have Completed The Best HIPAA Compliance Training Available With ComplianceJunctions Certificate Of Completion, ArcTitan is a comprehensive email archiving solution designed to comply with HIPAA regulations, Arrange a demo to see ArcTitans user-friendly interface and how easy it is to implement, Find Out With Our Free HIPAA Compliance Checklist, Quickly Identify Potential Risks & Vulnerabilities In Your HIPAA Compliance, Avoid HIPAA Compliance Violations Due To Social Media Misuse, penalties for HIPAA violations are detailed here, violating the HIPAA minimum necessary standard, Reader Offer: Free Annual HIPAA Risk Assessment, Video: Why HIPAA Compliance is Important for Healthcare Professionals, Accessing the PHI of patients you are not required to treat, Gossiping Talking about specific patients and disclosing their health information to family, friends & colleagues, Disclosing PHI to anyone not authorized to receive the information, Improper disposal of PHI Discarding protected health information with regular trash, Leaving PHI in a location where it can be accessed by unauthorized individuals, Using the credentials of another employee to access EMRs/Sharing login credentials, Sharing PHI on social media networks (See below).
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