I think ebaines is correct. I just did a lot of research and can find no reference to anyone getting a free pass because it was a clerical error. And I think rightly so, because anyone in the entire medical chain could always claim- 'Well, I was looking at my friend's records by mistake, there happened to be a patient with a similar name, I wasn't snooping' or a thousand different scenarios. I think you should report it. Each medical entity is required to have a policy in place to ensure compliance with HIPAA law and to provide all employees with training to further ensure compliance.
The situation you described almost certainly had to be a violation of in-place procedures, a name wasn't checked, a DOB wasn't checked, etc.
Seems to me that the Dr. should have taken custody of that document/xray and personally returned it to his probably colleagues officially and let them handle it per their written policy.
The responsible employee may be terminated and that is not a bad thing. If not such a glowing error, it might not have been caught and resulted in erroneous treatment, let alone invasion of privacy. Their procedure may even require them to notify the patient whose records were violated. All based on a name being provided with the xray and I doubt seriously that it wasn't.
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