I work in a hospital. I called out sick and went to Urgent Care to find out what was wrong the next morning. I found out I had bronchitis and would not be able to work the next night either. I faxed in the doctor's excuse to my unit that I work on. I was pulled aside tonight at work and told that a fellow co-worker (an LPN), not my unit supervisor, called the Urgent Care that night I faxed the excuse in to see if it was real or not. Is this a violation of a HIPAA law and if so, do you know the steps I should take to take care of this. Anything will help. Thanks so much!

It's not a violation of HIPAA because, first, you faxed the excuse. You do not know who is going to intervene that fax. Because you fax it, it became available to anyone who has access to that fax.

Now, it was in very poor judgment, and could very well get the LPN in some trouble. You need to go to your unit supervisor about this.