Uhh, what happens if you accidentally open a VIP's chart?

[reca]

I was trying to open up a particular patient's chart but couldn't remember their name. I'd seen them for my first appointment slot on a Monday sometime in the last three months so figured it'd be easy enough to just go through my Epic schedule and open up the first patient I'd seen every Monday till I found them. So just went back, looking at patients who were roughly the age I remember. Somehow while doing this, Epic defaulted to department view rather than my clinic view. Which wasn't really a problem since I'm the only person who sees patients in the department on Monday mornings.

Except, turns out someone else had schedule a patient for first thing Monday morning outside their clinic time. I wasn't looking at the listed attending's name, just saw the patient's name was familiar, opened up the chart, quickly realized (like within 5 seconds) that it wasn't my patient, and ex'ed out. It was only a few hours later that I realized why the patient's name was familiar, they're a major VIP within our academic system.

So....what do I do? Don't say anything? Report to someone so they know it was a genuine mistake?

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[Old&InTheWay]

Don't worry about it; honest mistake. Sounds like you didn't see anything you couldn't have seen just looking at the clinic schedule.

 

[Bartelby]

The chart logs the access. I did something similar several years ago and did not do anything about it, nothing ever came of it. I don't know if that is the correct response though.

 

[thumbz]

If it's anything like Cerner it actually logs time in the chart. So they'll see you opened it for 5 seconds, didn't click on anything else in the chart, and then closed it. It's a nothing burger, don't lose sleep over it.

I've accidentally done it in Cerner by trying to look up a docs clinic schedule to see if they're in house on a particular day, and inadvertently put their name into the patient search instead of the schedule search bar.

 

[Merovinge]

Epic tracks all the metadata/keystrokes. Absolutely nothing to worry about for misclicks into charts and closing them out shortly thereafter. Can't say I love literally everything we do being tracked to the keystroke but this is certainly a place where it helps.

 

[calvnandhobbs68]

If it's anything like Cerner it actually logs time in the chart. So they'll see you opened it for 5 seconds, didn't click on anything else in the chart, and then closed it. It's a nothing burger, don't lose sleep over it.

I've accidentally done it in Cerner by trying to look up a docs clinic schedule to see if they're in house on a particular day, and inadvertently put their name into the patient search instead of the schedule search bar.

Lol definitely did the same thing once. Put an attendings name in the patient search bar instead of the schedule search. If there’s an exact match with no other duplicates, it automatically opens the chart. Realized I was in THEIR chart and was like oh ****. I was sweating bullets for about a day but again nothing ever came of it.

 

[hamstergang]

My front desk staff once routed me a telephone note in Epic but opened the encounter under me as the patient instead of the actual patient. She did not get fired for opening my patient chart and documenting in it despite me not being a patient in that department.

 

[robellis]

This does not matter in the slightest you were there for 5 seconds so nothing happened

 

[NickNaylor]

Your institution will have its own policies about this kind of thing. At our institution, a "break the glass" functionality is available and applied to charts in some automatic circumstances (e.g., VIPs, employees of the institution, and trainees) and on request by the patient. This requires you to put in your password before opening the chart. A dialog box also pops up that indicates that access to these charts is more closely monitored.

Even if something were to happen in your case, OP, I imagine that just explaining the situation will make this a non-issue. No need to report this or otherwise escalate it. That's just asking for trouble, and in all likelihood it won't even be noticed.

 

[TexasPhysician]

By major VIP in the academic system, do you mean something like a Vice President of the center or do you mean something like a hip hop star that utilizes that medical system?

If someone part of the system like a VP of Utah Health Services, I wouldn’t worry about it. They’ll understand that mistakes happen and that 5 seconds wouldn’t get you much interesting data that no one would pay for anyway.

If a hip hop star, I’d be considering how to properly address the matter proactively. 5 seconds is enough time if planned in advance to take photos of tabloid material. At the off chance this hip hop star ever blames the hospital for a Hipaa violation or releasing personal health data, I wouldn’t want my name being found by attorneys without having addressed it already. You’ll look guilty by ignoring it.