privacy?

What is the name of your state? Virginia

My wife requested a release form for her medical records be faxed to her place of work. Instead the office faxed, unknown to my wife, her entire medical record. They sat on the fax machine for who knows who to see, as she was not informed that a fax would be sent. What recourse do we have in this regards? A Co-worked brought her file to her from the FAX machine, but it is unknown who else may have been privilaged to them before the co-worked delivered them.

Thank you.

sturaw
You stated that your wife requested her medical records to be faxed to her employer's fax #. Even if the records were faxed to her without her written consent, she verbally requested the information to be sent by fax to her employer's fax #.

HIPAA has specific rules for faxing medical records. A cover sheet must be used and no unnecessary information can be included on the fax cover sheet. The cover sheet must state that if the fax is received in error, notify the sender immediately and must state that the contents of the fax are for the named recipient only. It's a fairly standard fax cover sheet.

The persons retrieving the fax materials should not have read the information and if any person or persons read the information, then that person(s) is the one who violated confidentiality.

I can't see making a big deal out of receiving the entire record rather than whatever pages your wife requested. I doubt your wife stated to only send the records for the past 30 days or such or that if she had signed a release form, that she would have stated only certain pages.

Your wife could have protected the privacy of her records by picking up the records or paying for overnight delivery to her office or to her residence.

EC

**The way I understand it is his wife requested a release form to be faxed to her. Not all her medical records.

HT

It may be as you understood, just the form. Still, the records were only sent to his wife.

I can't support these 'victims' of hopeful HIPAA infractions; it's just another attack on what is presumed to be 'full pockets' of healthcare providers and the goal is to gain 'lottery winnings'.

EC

Actually, she only requested the release form, not the records themselves. The fax was sent to her place of business with no cover page indicating that it was for her. The information was sent after office hours and they gave her no idea that they were sending anything, or she would have waited for the form and other then a surprise copy of her records, all would have been well. She had no idea that they would be sending her records or anything other then a blank release form.

sturaw

If there was NO cover letter, then go to the HIPAA site and submit a complaint form. Don't expect to be awarded any financial compensation. The matter will most likely be handled through administrative procedures.

EC

EH,

Our primary concern is not having this occur again. For anyone. How can we be assured that the office has altered its proceedures to protect patient privacy? They offered to fire the worked involved, but if she was merely following protocal, or lack thereof, then the situation will be repeated regardless of who is there. How can we make sure that proceedure is impacted ? You assure me that it will handled administratively, yet my experiences have indicated that means nothing will be affected.

sturaw

sturaw
As long as there are people, there will be mistakes made. HIPAA requires a cover sheet; the rest of the problem is of human nature to read what is not your information and your wife has no proof that anyone read the information.

They offered to fire the person who made the error in sending the records instead of the form. It was generous of your wife to allow the person to continue to have an income for food and shelter.

Perhaps the next time you make an error, you would prefer to be fired or made to pay a substantial amount of money to the person wronged by your error. Certainly, you should not be allowed to make errors in the future and something must be done to keep you 100% accurate, right?

EC

EC,

Not all errors have equal value. Are you saying that sharing highly personnal and confidential information is allowable because "people will be people?" This was not a case of ordering the wrong sandwich for lunch, yet you dismiss it as if it were. Is it not important for organizations to attempt to improve themselves? You seem to be suggesting otherwise.

Thank you for the information and the somewhat slanted opinions,

Sturaw

sturaw, I find it quite upsetting that they released your wife's records when they didn't have a release form. Just a phone call from her, and how could they even be sure it was her. Hopefully the administration has handled it severely enough that an error like that doesn't happen again.