I am employeed by a hospital in KY. I work in the Central Sterile Department.The Department Head has a locked office down the hall but in the department we have a desk with a computer that everyone in the department uses.The department head left a e-mail from the hospital health nurse talking about another employee workers comp case (this was a hard copy).During working that night it was knocked off by me.Everyone had been talking about this person coming back the next day.I showed the paper to another coworker is this a HIPPA violation?

I think that you would find that this doesn't fall under HIPAA, which is really about transfer of medical information between medical facilities, not intra-company and among employees, but it could get both you and the person who left the print out in the open fired or disciplined. If the email file was supposed to be locked, then that person is more culpable than you. It depends on how much you talked about it and showed it around. You can claim you just found it etc, the other person has no excuse.

It sounds like a violation of security rules for medical records of the accreditation group for the hospital, since all medical records are to be locked up and not left on a desk

You violated rules ( perhaps not hippa) in first reading it, not just putting it back on a desk, and you violated a rule for showing it to someone else

Agree with the above. Both you and the person who left the information unsecured could be disciplined or worse, and you could definitely be fired for disseminating the info.

It could be a HIPAA violation if that person was treated at your facility.

I need to know if this is a violation of Hippa: I work at a hospital in the CSP department we were working one night and I was getting a paper from the copier that I needed it fell on desk with other papers(this is a community desk where we check pay stubs,put call time in etc.) I picked up a piece of paper that was talking about another co-worker that is off on workers comp.It was from the hospital health nurse to my supervisor.It was talking about her filing a claim and that she had said some thinks that were not documented in doctors notes etc. they would know more when doctors notes got in would she be able to accommodate restrictions.I had been told by another employee earlier in the night that she was coming back the next day but she didn't think there were restrictons.The other employee was near me when I saw this piece of paper I showed paper to her. I didn't say anything to anyone else. The next day I was fired.
The other girl told some people what she read the next day but did not get fired nor did the person who left it there.Did I violate Hippa?

You have already received great answers here

https://www.askmehelpdesk.com/other-law/hippa-violation-589810.html

Oh, and by the way, it's HIPAA, not HIPPA

Threads merged--Please use the Answer options if you have follow ups, not start a new thread

What about your previous answers didn't you like?

Didn't realize I was posting again.