Hipaa question

[Indiana1000]

Here is my question. I was asked to take a patients CT disc to get up loaded in our medical X-ray viewer system for one of the doctors I work with. I handed it to the radiology tech and told her that this needed uploaded i to the system for one of our physicians. She looked at it asked me questions . I accidentally told her it was the physicians sister n laws disc who is our patient. She said “wow that is a hipaa violation “. I realized what happened and apologized. I did not disclose any other info with her about the patient. I have seen this tech before but did not know her name and she didn’t know my name either because my badge was turned around so she didn’t see my name nor did she ask my name. The next day a different tech brought the disc over and said it was up loaded. I’m really worried. This happened a week ago. Can I still get into trouble for accidentally telling her that even though she didn’t know my name ?

 

[FlyingRon]

It's not a HIPAA violation. The tech works for a covered entity. She already was under control of all the PHI (save the relationship of the patient to the provider), and hence herself had the obligation to protect it.

 

[quincy]

I agree with FlyingRon. This was not a HIPAA violation.

 

[eerelations]

Why was your badge turned around?

 

[Indiana1000]

It flips all the time. I always have it facing with my name. But it just happened to be flipped around because of the way our badge holders are made

 

[quincy]

It flips all the time. I always have it facing with my name. But it just happened to be flipped around because of the way our badge holders are made

This is not something you should worry about.

 

[cbg]

However, the reason it is not a violation is that the tech was authorized to have the information, not because you did nothing wrong. You did do wrong - a part of HIPAA is to give the minimal information required. By a sheer act of luck, you dodged a bullet.

Be more careful in the future.