A note about HIPAA

After sharing this blog with some interns, the leaders of my "hidden curriculum" group, they talked with me about patient privacy concerns. The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA) outlines regulations for the handling of patient information, and they wanted to be sure that I was not violating this law in discussing patients on this blog. I appreciate that they came to me with their concern, both in protecting my patients from possible breach of confidentiality and in protecting me from my own possible ignorance of the regulations.

However, I am well aware of HIPAA regulations. When discussing patients on this blog, I am very careful about omitting potential identifying information including age and race. I also randomly change the gender of my patients when I have to use pronouns. My policy is to err on the side of caution and to seek advice from a classmate or a supervisor whenever I have questions about the appropriateness of discussing any topic (for example, conflict between a nurse and an attending physician).

After reviewing all of my patient-centered blog posts, I am comfortable that I appropriately protected my patients' confidentiality. That said, though, if any of my readers are ever uncomfortable about the inclusion of particular information as it relates to patient confidentiality, I encourage them to contact me so I can edit the post as quickly as possible.