Personal Statement and HIPPA

[Laura Jean]

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I would like to include a short narrative of the one time when I was floated down to the ED and had my first cardiac arrest experience in which I was thrown in to actively participate. It was a crazy experience due to age of the patient and other factors.

Obviously no name, but what about age, what happened, the result? What else should I avoid mentioning to not break HIPPA? While the focus is on my experience, there would need to be some information about the event which includes the patient so I want to be safe…

 

[LizzyM]

You can't use a date (in other words, you can't say, "It was Christmas Eve...") and you can't use a specific age above something like 80 or 90.) Just think about how someone would feel if they recognized their cousin or grandparent (or grandchild!) in your little story. Stranger things have happened. Even if you don't include the name of the institution, that may be listed among your ECs and it will be easy to connect the dots. Above all, be respectful to the family and the patient no matter how "crazy" the experience might have been.

 

[LunaOri]

HIPAA. Not HIPPA.

 

[Matthew9Thirtyfive]

Nothing identifying. Be vague about age, time of year, don’t go into any detail about appearance. If the story is very unique that the patient could be identified just from the circumstances, then just don’t use it at all.

 

[cj_cregg]

Good rule of thumb for stuff like this: if the patient/family could read the story and recognize it was about them, it's probably not a good idea.