Does this description violate HIPAA?

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Hi guys,

I will be sending Mayo Med an update letter regarding my work experiences. I want to include a specific patient encounter but not sure if it violates HIPAA privacy laws. Here is my description:

"A man came from the inner city via public transportation and presented with 5 chief complaints ranging from toe fungus and head lice to flu-like symptoms and chest pain. He did not have a primary care provider and mentioned that all doctor’s offices were closed for the day and no other health clinics nearby were taking more patients. Although we were well past our closing time, we decided to help him out. A routine physical exam revealed an undiagnosed heart murmur and the HPI showed symptoms of non-reproducible chest pain and SOB. Patient health information further indicated a history of chronic hypertension, tobacco smoking, and cardiac issues in his family. We recommended him a cardiologist and immediately referred him to the ED."

Please let me know if this is an appropriate description. Thanks!
 
I'd do some rewriting of that paragraph, but...

You haven't included any identifiers, and I don't think there's enough info in the paragraph for anyone to identify the patient's identity. Not a HIPAA violation.

Take out the part about "inner city" and "public transportation" since it's irrelevant.

Thanks for saying "HIPAA" and not "HIPPA". It's like nails on a chalkboard to me.
 
Pink Panda said:
Hi guys,

I will be sending Mayo Med an update letter regarding my work experiences. I want to include a specific patient encounter but not sure if it violates HIPAA privacy laws. Here is my description:

"A man came from the inner city via public transportation and presented with 5 chief complaints ranging from toe fungus and head lice to flu-like symptoms and chest pain. He did not have a primary care provider and mentioned that all doctor’s offices were closed for the day and no other health clinics nearby were taking more patients. Although we were well past our closing time, we decided to help him out. A routine physical exam revealed an undiagnosed heart murmur and the HPI showed symptoms of non-reproducible chest pain and SOB. Patient health information further indicated a history of chronic hypertension, tobacco smoking, and cardiac issues in his family. We recommended him a cardiologist and immediately referred him to the ED."

Please let me know if this is an appropriate description. Thanks!
Click to expand...
I don't think you have to be concerned about HIPAA but the barrage of symptoms and conditions here doesn't make for especially interesting reading IMO. It kind of reads like you're just trying to demonstrate your knowledge of medicine by squeezing as many medical terms as you can into one paragraph (sorry!). Also, some of the style here is a bit clunky. For example, it would be "doctors' offices," not "doctor's offices" (multiple doctors, multiple practices). I don't know if it makes sense to say that "the HPI showed symptoms of non-reproducible chest pain..." Is this an HPI from a pre-existing chart you were looking at? As written it almost sounds like an HPI is a kind of medical test or something. I think you should just explain that the patient was complaining of chest pain and SOB. HPIs don't show those things, that information goes into HPIs.
 
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Pink Panda said:
"A man came from the inner city via public transportation and presented with 5 chief complaints ranging from toe fungus and head lice to flu-like symptoms and chest pain. He did not have a primary care provider and mentioned that all doctor’s offices were closed for the day and no other health clinics nearby were taking more patients. Although we were well past our closing time, we decided to help him out. A routine physical exam revealed an undiagnosed heart murmur and the HPI showed symptoms of non-reproducible chest pain and SOB. Patient health information further indicated a history of chronic hypertension, tobacco smoking, and cardiac issues in his family. We recommended him a cardiologist and immediately referred him to the ED."
Click to expand...
Not a HIPAA violation but I agree with the above poster, in that it seems to technical and forced. Especially if this is an update letter, what are you trying to prove by adding that paragraph? What purpose does it serve?
 
Is this a low key “pls review my update guise” post? Lol. Not a HIPPA violation imo.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
This is not an update, this is a case history.


Pink Panda said:
Hi guys,

I will be sending Mayo Med an update letter regarding my work experiences. I want to include a specific patient encounter but not sure if it violates HIPAA privacy laws. Here is my description:

"A man came from the inner city via public transportation and presented with 5 chief complaints ranging from toe fungus and head lice to flu-like symptoms and chest pain. He did not have a primary care provider and mentioned that all doctor’s offices were closed for the day and no other health clinics nearby were taking more patients. Although we were well past our closing time, we decided to help him out. A routine physical exam revealed an undiagnosed heart murmur and the HPI showed symptoms of non-reproducible chest pain and SOB. Patient health information further indicated a history of chronic hypertension, tobacco smoking, and cardiac issues in his family. We recommended him a cardiologist and immediately referred him to the ED."

Please let me know if this is an appropriate description. Thanks!
Click to expand...
 
Pink Panda said:
Hi guys,

I will be sending Mayo Med an update letter regarding my work experiences. I want to include a specific patient encounter but not sure if it violates HIPAA privacy laws. Here is my description:

"A man came from the inner city via public transportation and presented with 5 chief complaints ranging from toe fungus and head lice to flu-like symptoms and chest pain. He did not have a primary care provider and mentioned that all doctor’s offices were closed for the day and no other health clinics nearby were taking more patients. Although we were well past our closing time, we decided to help him out. A routine physical exam revealed an undiagnosed heart murmur and the HPI showed symptoms of non-reproducible chest pain and SOB. Patient health information further indicated a history of chronic hypertension, tobacco smoking, and cardiac issues in his family. We recommended him a cardiologist and immediately referred him to the ED."

Please let me know if this is an appropriate description. Thanks!
Click to expand...

Not a HIPAA violation, but I see no value to the paragraph whatsoever. It conveys no information whatsoever about you, and comes across as very pretentious as "we" referred him to cardiology. Don't pretend you're a medical provider.

Leave this entire paragraph out.
 
I would suggest , like others said, to focus on your accomplishments since secondary applications were submitted. This tells me little about your ability to succeed in medical school.


Sent from my iPhone using SDN mobile
 
Pink Panda said:
Hi guys,

I will be sending Mayo Med an update letter regarding my work experiences. I want to include a specific patient encounter but not sure if it violates HIPAA privacy laws. Here is my description:

"A man came from the inner city via public transportation and presented with 5 chief complaints ranging from toe fungus and head lice to flu-like symptoms and chest pain. He did not have a primary care provider and mentioned that all doctor’s offices were closed for the day and no other health clinics nearby were taking more patients. Although we were well past our closing time, we decided to help him out. A routine physical exam revealed an undiagnosed heart murmur and the HPI showed symptoms of non-reproducible chest pain and SOB. Patient health information further indicated a history of chronic hypertension, tobacco smoking, and cardiac issues in his family. We recommended him a cardiologist and immediately referred him to the ED."

Please let me know if this is an appropriate description. Thanks!
Click to expand...

What exactly is this supposed to "update" about you? That you actually had a patient encounter like every other premed applying to medical school? Unless you've had a SIGNIFICANT change or accomplishment like first author publication, patent, etc I would not waste time updating the adcom as it's a waste of time and not really going to help your cause. I wouldn't even waste time updating them about grades unless somehow you changed your 3.3 to a 4.0.
 
Your secondary app was the place for such things. You'd be better served talking about personal achievements and continued interest in their program for some specific reason.
 
Not a HIPAA violation but you definitely just undermined your own online anonymity to the Mayo admissions office by posting it here.

I also don't see what point this serves and it was sort of cringe-inducing to read.
 
From reading some of your other posts, it seems you have already written the letter so I’m not sure why you are asking us this question. But updates tend to be about updates to your application. What does this scenario update. Had you previously seen this man and talked about him before? What did you do? I don’t think you made the decision to refer him to Cards. I’m just confused why you’d consider this an update at all.
 
Also, posting your update letter text to a publicly searchable site allows them to associate your real identity with your SDN one with zero effort. Good luck with thinking that no one is going to Google you. I remember getting notifications from LinkedIn telling me that adcoms were looking at my profile.
 
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jonnythan said:
Also, posting your update letter text to a publicly searchable site allows them to associate your real identity with your SDN one with zero effort. Good luck with thinking that no one is going to Google you. I remember getting notifications from LinkedIn telling me that adcoms we're looking at my profile.
Click to expand...
I want to follow up my young colleague's post to second the fact that Admissions deans do look at SDN.
 
What OP is probably thinking at this point:

Bc56Txu.gif



(sorry OP)
 
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