Pharmacy Chain Institutes New Safeguards for PHI in Pseudoephedrine Log Books
Pharmacy Chain Institutes New Safeguards for PHI in Pseudoephedrine Log Books
Covered Entity: Pharmacies
Issue: Safeguards
A grocery store based pharmacy chain maintained pseudoephedrine log
books containing protected health information in a manner so that
individual protected health information was visible to the public at the
pharmacy counter. Initially, the pharmacy chain refused to acknowledge
that the log books contained protected health information. OCR issued a
written analysis and a demand for compliance. Among other corrective
actions to resolve the specific issues in the case, OCR required that
the pharmacy chain implement national policies and procedures to
safeguard the log books. Moreover, the entity was required to train of
all staff on the revised policy. The chain acknowledged that log books
contained protected health information and implemented the required
changes.
| Can a covered entity use existing aspects of the HIPAA Privacy Rule to give individuals the right to decide whether sensitive information about them may be disclosed to or through a health information organization (HIO)? Yes. To the extent a covered entity is using a process either to obtain consent or act on an individual’s right to request restrictions under the Privacy Rule as a method for effectuating individual choice, policies can be developed for obtaining consent or honoring restrictions on a granular level, based on the type of information involved. For example, specific consent and restriction policies could ...read more |
| State Hospital Sanctions Employees for Disclosing Patient's PHI Covered Entity: Health Care Provider / General Hospital Issue: Impermissible Disclosure A nurse and an orderly at a state hospital discussed the HIV/AIDS status of a patient and the patient's spouse within earshot of other patients without making reasonable efforts to prevent the disclosure. Upon learning of the incident, the hospital placed both employees on leave; the orderly resigned his employment shortly thereafter. Among other actions taken to satisfactorily resolve this matter, the hospital took further disciplinary action with the nurse, which included: documenting the employee record with a memo of ...read more |
| Hospital Issues Guidelines Regarding Disclosures to Avert Threats to Health or Safety Covered Entity: General Hospital Issue: Safeguards; Impermissible Uses and Disclosures; Disclosures to Avert a Serious Threat to Health or Safety After treating a patient injured in a rather unusual sporting accident, the hospital released to the local media, without the patient’s authorization, copies of the patient’s skull x-ray as well as a description of the complainant’s medical condition. The local newspaper then featured on its front page the individual’s x-ray and an article that included the date of the accident, the location of the accident, the patient’s ...read more |
| May a covered entity dispose of protected health information in dumpsters accessible by the public? For example, depending on the circumstances, proper disposal methods may include (but are not limited to): Shredding or otherwise destroying PHI in paper records so that the PHI is rendered essentially unreadable, indecipherable, and otherwise cannot be reconstructed prior to it being placed in a dumpster or other trash receptacle.Maintaining PHI for disposal in a secure area and using a disposal vendor as a business associate to pick up and shred or otherwise destroy the PHI.In justifiable cases, based on the size and the ...read more |
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