shadowing and HIPAA.... bottom line

[rikio]

okay, so what is the bottom line about how HIPAA affects doctor shadowing? just curious...

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[superdevil]

as far as i can recall, i just signed some run-of-the-mill looking confidentiality forms and proceeded as usual. or maybe i'm coming down with a severe case of early-onset senility.....say, i don't remember my monitor being there....hmmmm.....

 

[XCanadianRagwee]

I'll give you the rundown of HIPAA...

Keep your mouth shut, sign the forms, shadow like normal.

 

[docmemi]

i would suggest you become a regular hospital volunteer with an id and stuff and then go shadow. if in a clinic, then no one will ever know. patients are usually told who you are before the dr continues to speak with them so as to get permission for u to stay.

 

[jtorres]

i hope your right docmemi. as bad as this may sound i think that its now a waste of time to try to show a doc since you are not going to hear or see anything. i start my clinical part of my MT cert. in april and i hope that with my hospital ID, even if it says student i will have a little more access to patients. heck i will be the one running their lab test and reporting their results so who is a little more patient interaction going to harm. HIPPA may s*uck for us but docs gotta love it. one less lawsuit to worry about. if i were in to get an HIV result or something personal the only person i want in that office aside from me is the doc.

 

[felipe5]

not to mention the damn HIPAA training........it took forever, and I wasn't even close to the hospital or doing research that involved humans!!!!! Oh well, I guess it wasn't THAT bad

 

[LaurieB]

Most of the docs I shadowed didn't worry about HIPAA since they felt that my purposes were educational. I think it helped that I knew them all personally to some extent so they felt like they could trust me.

I never had to sign anything, but I did get turned away by a D.O. friend of mine who is a resident. His attending didn't want to take the risk of violating HIPAA.

I think there is no bottom line. People are still trying to figure out what they need to do to comply.

 

[medman12677]

http://www.os.dhhs.gov/ocr/hipaa/

 

[twinklz]

At one hospital they didn't seem to care about HIPPA. Of course I was shadowing the chief of staff, so maybe that had something to do with it.

But at another hospital I had to sign forms and the patient's family had to sign forms. I felt sorta bad. I mean this guy is undergoing a serious operation and here I am bothering them and asking if I can watch.

I guess it varies from hospital to hospital as to what you're allowed to do and see.

 

[Chrisobean]

hospitals are just scared of violations, which carry big penalties. the wording of HIPAA is pretty ambiguous so alot of it is up to interpretation, and to be on the safe side many places refuse to allow 'shadows'.

 

[lizzylu]

before HIPAA my students/volunteers could watch surgery, see patients in the clinic, essentially get by w/out anyone really questioning.

after HIPAA no one in the OR, clinic, they can only be in the lab/office where they're well out of the way of seeing patients.

It's too bad, the restrictions have gone just a bit too far. I work w/ HIPAA stuff everyday, and it's a good idea, just it's not being implemented correctly and is overly restrictive of normal research activities.