VA Sunshine Healthcare Network (VISN 8)

Report ID: SPE000000077045, U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs

Reported Entity: VISN 08 Bay Pines, FL

Issue:

A Employee/Veteran was having surgery performed at the facility and another VA Employee was the recovery room when he awoke asking questions related to his surgery. The employee had no reason to be in the room, was not a part of this Veteran/employee's care and is a sub-ordinate of this employee. Update: 07/09/12:The employee is responsible reviewing case charts for surgery. She saw the name of the Veteran employee having surgery who happens to hold a position in management within her service. She used that information she had access to and visited this patient in the recovery room after his surgery. This employee was not stopped by the nurse on the floor; rather she was told go ahead, however, this employee was wearing a lab coat and the nurse didn't think twice about it. Meanwhile, this employee proceeded to approach the Veteran employee directly in his room and question him about the type of surgery he had and the cost it was having on our facility, etc. The Privacy Officer (PO) interviewed the employee this past Friday who admitted to visiting the Employee/Veteran in the manner described with the exception of cost to facility. She also stated that she did share this information with one other co-worker. The employee will recieve a HIPAA letter of notification

Outcome:

The employee who inapproriately used this information was provided addtional education by the Privacy Officer. This event has been reported to human resources by employees supervisor and is awaiting further action. HIPAA Notification Letter has been mailed to the affected Veteran.

Related Reports:

1 other violation reported on the same date. Note that other citations may be about the same event: SPE000000077043