Submitting reports to APPIC

[psydstudent2020]

Regarding submitting supplemental materials on APPIC, it states, "It is your ethical responsibility to protect the confidentiality of patient information; please reference HIPAA guidelines.To de-identify a report, please delete the confidential information and replace it with "XXXX"." My question is, should I replace information such as treatment centers the client attended with XXXX? I've always been told to remove the specific location and put brackets to indicate where the client attended since it gives vital information. for example, my de-identified reports illustrate information such as "[Rehabilitation Treatment Center]," "[University]," etc. I want to make sure before I remove virtually all information from my report. Is APPIC simply referring to personal information such as name, DOB, ethnicity, etc. or are they referring to other relevant information such as in my examples?

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[WorkLifeBalance]

Regarding submitting supplemental materials on APPIC, it states, "It is your ethical responsibility to protect the confidentiality of patient information; please reference HIPAA guidelines.To de-identify a report, please delete the confidential information and replace it with "XXXX"." My question is, should I replace information such as treatment centers the client attended with XXXX? I've always been told to remove the specific location and put brackets to indicate where the client attended since it gives vital information. for example, my de-identified reports illustrate information such as "[Rehabilitation Treatment Center]," "[University]," etc. I want to make sure before I remove virtually all information from my report. Is APPIC simply referring to personal information such as name, DOB, ethnicity, etc. or are they referring to other relevant information such as in my examples?

That's what I did when I de-identified reports. It ensures that no one can identify the subject, and it also helps the reader follow the report (for example, graduated from [University] can be differentiated from graduated from [High School])

 

[MiniLop]

Speaking of which, is it considered acceptable to use a pseudonym, or should it always be XXXX/etc.?

 

[laughingasong]

Speaking of which, is it considered acceptable to use a pseudonym, or should it always be XXXX/etc.?

My report currently just has one letter as an initial...I am not looking forward to spending an hour typing XXXX instead lol.

 

[AbnormalPsych]

My report currently just has one letter as an initial...I am not looking forward to spending an hour typing XXXX instead lol.

Just use the replace function. Takes 5 seconds for to change them all.

 

[AbnormalPsych]

Regarding submitting supplemental materials on APPIC, it states, "It is your ethical responsibility to protect the confidentiality of patient information; please reference HIPAA guidelines.To de-identify a report, please delete the confidential information and replace it with "XXXX"." My question is, should I replace information such as treatment centers the client attended with XXXX? I've always been told to remove the specific location and put brackets to indicate where the client attended since it gives vital information. for example, my de-identified reports illustrate information such as "[Rehabilitation Treatment Center]," "[University]," etc. I want to make sure before I remove virtually all information from my report. Is APPIC simply referring to personal information such as name, DOB, ethnicity, etc. or are they referring to other relevant information such as in my examples?

Err on the conservative side with all this. Better to over de-identify than under de-identify. Don't give any reviewer a reason to think you made a careless error or worse, not be as ethical as they would like you to be.

 

[WisNeuro]

Just use the replace function. Takes 5 seconds for to change them all.

Yeah, takes me about 10 minutes to de-identify my reports. Some replace functions, manually removing a few other items, quick read through to make sure. Voila. When submitting for APPIC, maybe bump that up to an extra 5 minutes for a second read through.

 

[WorkLifeBalance]

Yeah, takes me about 10 minutes to de-identify my reports. Some replace functions, manually removing a few other items, quick read through to make sure. Voila. When submitting for APPIC, maybe bump that up to an extra 5 minutes for a second read through.

I second this! I've reviewed sample reports that left in names because of typos - search/replace won't touch those.

 

[Kadhir]

Speaking of which, is it considered acceptable to use a pseudonym, or should it always be XXXX/etc.?

Definitely don't use pseudonyms. They can be mistaken for actual names (and thus perceived as violations). I always used XXXX and also watermarked the document with "SAMPLE." It was overkill, but it was recommended by a faculty member who was quite a stickler about this stuff, and for good reason.

Service/symptom dates are particularly important for clinical history in neuropsych reports, so I made sure to indicate something like MRI performed on XX/XX/XXXX (1 year prior to this evaluation), or simply, MRI performed on [1 year prior to this evaluation]... you get the idea.

Edit: I generally removed names of specific locations and noted something like "outpatient clinic in Neurology dept," etc. But I recall one site specifically asked where my evaluation was performed (not just setting- they wanted the actual clinic name). For this site only, I listed that at the top of the document. I think this is definitely an exception.

 

[MiniLop]

Thanks! Does the same go for case vignettes in internship essays? My advisor said a pseudonym makes it feel more real, but I'd rather not risk getting on the bad side of a reader...

 

[projessorx]

Thanks! Does the same go for case vignettes in internship essays? My advisor said a pseudonym makes it feel more real, but I'd rather not risk getting on the bad side of a reader...

For mine, I used a pseudonym with an asterisk (e.g., Jake*), and added a footnote that indicated the name was changed.

 

[Kadhir]

I agree. You can use pseudonyms for case vignettes as long as it's clear. "My patient, who I will refer to as Amy..."

 

[AbnormalPsych]

Thanks! Does the same go for case vignettes in internship essays? My advisor said a pseudonym makes it feel more real, but I'd rather not risk getting on the bad side of a reader...

I think I went with Mr. XX or something like that with mine. Made it clear what I was doing to de-identify but also acknowledging this was a person and made it feel as real as best I could.

 

[ExecutiveDysfunction]

It’s a cost-benefit analysis for me. Pros of keeping pseudonyms and locations: slightly more readable. Cons: might be perceived as unethically disclosing identifying information. It doesn’t matter if it is technically identifying (as per hipaa) or if someone else would consider it fine. If your reviewer takes a more conservative stance, which you have no control over l, you’re screwed. Simplest and least anxiety provoking move is to just spend the few minutes deindentifying fully.

 

[psydstudent2020]

Maybe I didn't make my question clear. Is it okay to not use "XXXX" specifically? It sounds like it is from what people are saying, but I want to make sure before I put stuff in brackets instead. Also, is the consensus that it is okay to put, NOT the name of the location, but what type of program it was? for example, "[Rehabilitation Treatment Center]," "[Private Practice]," "[Psychiatric Hospital]," etc. Lastly, it sounds like people are not including the name of the place they conducted the evaluation at. I was told this was just up to my supervisor, but now I'm worried some may see it as breaking confidentiality... so do you guys think it's okay to keep my report template with my supervisor's practice and info? She said it was okay but again I'm worried about what sites will think. Thanks all!

 

[Kadhir]

Maybe I didn't make my question clear. Is it okay to not use "XXXX" specifically? It sounds like it is from what people are saying, but I want to make sure before I put stuff in brackets instead.

Yes.

Also, is the consensus that it is okay to put, NOT the name of the location, but what type of program it was? for example, "[Rehabilitation Treatment Center]," "[Private Practice]," "[Psychiatric Hospital]," etc.

Yes.

Lastly, it sounds like people are not including the name of the place they conducted the evaluation at. I was told this was just up to my supervisor, but now I'm worried some may see it as breaking confidentiality... so do you guys think it's okay to keep my report template with my supervisor's practice and info? She said it was okay but again I'm worried about what sites will think. Thanks all!

I would take it out unless it is specifically requested by a site to which you are applying. You could include something general in all your reports speaking to the type of clinic (much like your bracketed examples above).