Ambulance Driver

A reader, who claims to be a health care professional, has anonymously declared that this blog violates the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, or HIPAA,  as it relates to patient confidentiality.

Insuring that a patient’s protected health information is kept private has been my greatest concern. It is my understanding that as long as the information presented here cannot be linked to a specific individual patient, then there is no HIPAA violation.

To protect a patient’s confidentiality, I have set up some rules for myself which include:

• No ages – just a general description, such as elderly.
• No addresses – not even the city.
• If the patient does not speak English, they are described as non-English speaking. No nationalities are reported.
• Specific hospital destinations are not given
• If I am on a scene that will probably make the 6 o’clock news, I will simply say, “I was there.”

It seems to me that if any personal information is to be linked to a specific patient,  it would have to be released by my employer. There is no way it can be gleaned from the stories told on Ambulance Driver.

It must be said, however, that the rules are arcane and can be interpreted in some very odd-sounding ways. Two examples come to mind.

1. At the scene of an auto accident, I can tell the police that the patient has a broken leg but I cannot tell them that I suspect the patient has been drinking. They have to figure it out themselves.
2. Cell phone cameras are great for bringing visual images from the scene to the hospital. Vehicle damage from wrecks, height of a fall, or the length of a knife that the patient was stabbed with are just some examples of information that is valuable to hospital staff. Our medical director will not allow this use due to HIPAA concerns.

I am asking several individuals and entities, whose job includes HIPAA concerns, to review this blog’s content. Unless there are good reasons to stop, I am going to carry on with my 911 Updates.