Healthcare IT News - December 2007 - (Page 6)

6 Healthcare IT News ■ December 2007 industry news www.HealthcareITNews.com Readers say clooney records snoops got off lightly news n By rICHarD pIZZI, Associate Editor INETY PERCENT OF Healthcare IT News readers who responded to the most recent News Monitor poll said that executives at Palisades Medical Center in North Bergen, N.J., acted appropriately to the September 2007 breach of George Clooney’s medical records by suspending the staff members suspected of snooping. Clooney and his friend, Sarah Larson, were treated at Palisades for minor injuries following a motorcycle crash on Sept. 21. The hospital suspended as many as 40 employees without pay on allegations that they accessed Clooney’s medical records in violation of federal HIPAA laws. Doctors, nurses and other workers were included in the mass suspension. Ten percent of News Monitor poll respondents said the hospital overreacted and should not have suspended the employees until a more thorough investigation was performed. Five hundred and fourteen people responded to the question. “Regardless of the severity of Mr. Clooney’s injuries, hospital staff members had no right to look at his records unless they had a need to know in order to perform their respective jobs,” wrote Colleen Goethals of the Midwest Medical Record Association Inc. in Schaumburg, Ill. “It’s not only hospital policy, but federal regulations.” Robert G. Shea of CACI International in Arlington, Va., agreed. “The staff had to know that the HIS was capable of monitoring who MONItOR New name. New colors. Same great… Products. Service. People. Workflow. Commitment. Kodak’s Health Group is now Carestream Health, Inc. We’re the same team with the same drive to make your work flow. To learn more, contact your Carestream Health representative. Call 1-877-865-6325. Kodak DirectView DR and CR Systems Kodak Point-of-Care CR Systems Kodak Carestream Radiology Solutions (RIS/PACS) Kodak Carestream Information Management Solutions Kodak Digital Mammography Solutions Kodak DryView Laser Imagers accessed the records and that it was a violation to do so,” he wrote. “Just like speeding, you get caught, you get fined. Other hospitals have a policy to terminate staff. They got off easy.” A few readers believe that Palisades took acted hastily, and should have conducted a full-scale investigation before taking action. “Suspicion is not guilt,” wrote Patty Booth of Athens Regional Medical Center in Athens, Ga. “Suspension is the appropriate response if it is proven that they had no need to look at the medical record. But that determination should have been made before the suspensions.” “Being suspected of doing something [illegal] should not incur punishment,” wrote John Lussier of Eisenhower Medical Center in Rancho Mirage, Calif. “But I would hope that more severe punishment would occur if they were found guilty of snooping.” Many poll respondents work at hospitals, and most of those who do agreed with Linda Everly of Lompoc (Calif.) Healthcare District. “At our hospital, there is a zero tolerance rule for HIPAA violations,” Everly wrote. “After a few key people have been let go, no one snoops anymore.” ■ More at HealthcareITNews.com e Connect: NeWSMoNItor 1207 ● epresCrIBe Continued from page 3 www.carestreamhealth.com of the doctors in America do 80 percent of the prescribing, so it would not be hard to target those doctors, Hutchinson added. The major obs tacle to eprescribing for doctors remains their fear of vio- Scott Serota lating the Drug Enforcement Administration’s prescription requirements under the Controlled Substances Act, he said. Blue Cross Blue Shield Association President Scott Serota said CMS should mandate Robert e-prescribing Kolodner, MD “before we start losing members of [this] panel.” Robert Kolodner, MD, the national coordinator for health information technology, presiding over the panel, called for AHIC to directly handle the e-prescribing issue by its January meeting, if not sooner. ■ More at HealthcareITNews.com e Connect: ePreSCrIBe 1207 Carestream, DirectView, and DryView are trademarks of Carestream Health, Inc. The Kodak trademark and trade dress are used under license from Kodak. © Carestream Health, Inc., 2007 ● e ● Connect: CareStreaM 1207 http://www.HealthcareITNews.com http://www.carestreamhealth.com http://www.HealthcareITNews.com http://www.healthcareitnews.com/story.cms?id=8184 http://www.carestreamhealth.com http://www.carestreamhealth.com http://www.HealthcareITNews.com http://www.healthcareitnews.com/story.cms?id=8181 http://www.healthcareitnews.com/eConnect.cms?id=8240

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Healthcare IT News - December 2007

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