Except for
the EMTALA ramifications it sounds like the ideal solution. -----Original
Message----- Our approach
to HIPAA Privacy compliance is also somewhat different. We’ve taken the position that in order
to minimize the risk of inappropriate use or disclosure of PHI we will no
longer maintain any medical records on our premises. Patients will be responsible for their own medical charts
and will be required to bring their records with them for any treatment
purposes. Any additions to the
medical chart must be made by the patient and all charts must be taken home
upon completion of any treatment or procedure. Patients will
be required to recite pertinent sections of their medical records to clinical
staff for treatment purposes.
Clinical staff will be required to take versed to impair their short
term memory and thus prevent subsequent post-treatment disclosures of PHI. O/R staff and
surgeons will not be permitted to orally discuss the patient or any aspect of
the operative procedures. Sports,
politics and religion will be the only permitted topics of conversation in the
O/R. Patients will brief their
surgeon’s from their medical records prior to surgery but only after the
surgeon has taken the requisite prophylactic dose of versed. Unconscious
E/R patients will be deferred to other treatment facilities. -----Original
Message----- Jim: We were doing as you are, but found triple locking
the patient records in an underground bomb-proof facility no fewer than 50
miles from a paved road to be a bit troublesome. We resorted to implanting a
small chip in each patient and found that to work very well. However, several
patients complained that they were setting off car alarms as they walked by,
three found that garage doors were springing open in the neighborhoods as they
drove home, and five patients found that they couldn't get out of their yards
with invisible fences. Thus, we have finally concluded that in order to be
HIPAA compliant our best course of action is to not provide anesthesia to any
patients. David David, Sheena, We are thumb printing all patients onto the
anesthesia record and the billing sheet so that we can verify that the
billing sheet information matches the anesthesia record for that patient. In
pre-op or Pre-Admission Testing, the CRNA and / or MDA is taking a digital
recording of each patient's voice and encoding it onto a magnetic
strip embedded into our new billing sheet. When our account representative calls
the patient's home, they ask for the patient by name and hit the F10
button on their keyboard and our billing software records and displays the
patient's encoded voice (previously transferred from the billing sheet) and
compares it to the digital readout of the person the account
representative is speaking to. When there is a match, the software flashes
"Match" three times. At this point the account representative continues the
conversation with the patient. The billing software automatically comments
that the conversation with the patient was digitally matched. Jim Valerie Hromatka System Administrator Privacy Officer Western Washington
Medical Group wwmedgroup.com 425-259-4041 425-252-6642 --- --- The WEDI SNIP listserv to which you are subscribed is not moderated. The discussions on this listserv therefore represent the views of the individual participants, and do not necessarily represent the views of the WEDI Board of Directors nor WEDI SNIP. If you wish to receive an official opinion, post your question to the WEDI SNIP Issues Database at http://snip.wedi.org/tracking/. These listservs should not be used for commercial marketing purposes or discussion of specific vendor products and services. They also are not intended to be used as a forum for personal disagreements or unprofessional communication at any time. You are currently subscribed to wedi-privacy as: [EMAIL PROTECTED] To unsubscribe from this list, go to the Subscribe/Unsubscribe form at http://subscribe.wedi.org or send a blank email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] If you need to unsubscribe but your current email address is not the same as the address subscribed to the list, please use the Subscribe/Unsubscribe form at http://subscribe.wedi.org |