Well, it actually happened to me! I never understood how these things happen BUT -

A friend of mine had surgery yesterday. I have his P/A as well as his living will. They wheeled him off to surgery at 12PM. I went in at 2:30, 3:30, 4:30, 5:30, 6:30 and was told he was still in surgery.

At 6:45 his daughter called me from out of State (on my cell) and said, "I hear Dad is doing very well." I said, no, he was still in surgery. She said, no, he had been in Recovery since 2:30PM and she knew that because she called the Surgical Unit and the secretary told her. Keep in mind he filled out the paperwork saying that NO ONE but me was to have that information.

So off I stormed - and I do mean stormed - to Administration, they walked back with me and "we" found him in Recovery, wondering where I was.

The hospital not only "forgot" to call me into Recovery, they explained the release of the information that he was a patient, he had surgery, he was in Recovery over the phone because "it was his daughter who called."

Needless to say I've already written a letter to the Hospital Administrator but after all the questions I've answered about HIPAA - it happened to me!

(Maybe this is more a topic for general discussion. I don't know - but here it is!)

No, this isn't proper at all. Just someone saying they are 'the daughter' over the phone should not be a reason to release information about a patient, but then it was only a status report.

If they would give this information re status, then I wonder what kind of information they would give out about anything, so it isn't really a tough call anyway.

I would defninitely say violation.

Tick