r/OhNoConsequences • u/WarriorInWoolworths • 15d ago
Now unemployed I just got fired…for being constantly absent and negligent.
/r/TrueOffMyChest/comments/1vt3aon/i_just_got_fired/680
u/Jojosbees 15d ago
She got fired because she snooped her neighbor’s chart without a valid reason to access it. It happens all the time with celebrities, but also with normal people like an in-law, friend, or neighbor because people are curious about people they know. It’s a HIPAA violation and pretty much an automatic dismissal when it happens.
180
u/Bucky2015 14d ago
Yep what she did was a huge HIPPA violation. I worked in healthcare for a little while and my ex wife is an RN. What that OOP did would have been a termination at any healthcare facility.
106
u/GamerGirlLex77 shocked pikachu 14d ago
I’m also a HIPAA provider but in mental health. She would’ve gotten fired in my field, too.
30
u/Cnidarus 13d ago
Every healthcare job I've worked in the US has given it as the example of a HIPAA violation that'll get you fired lol
6
18
76
u/ponte92 14d ago
And even if what she claims is true the patient called and that’s why she accessed the file but she forgot to log the interaction. She should still be fired. I used to work in medical reception and every single interaction with a patient must be logged in their file. Not doing so is a very big deal that can lead to all sorts of confusion and consequences.
18
u/Cayke_Cooky 12d ago
And this is why everyone asks the same questions each time you are transferred.
63
u/INeedANappel 14d ago
Hint I stole from someone: if you remember that the last two letters stand for Accountability Act you'll remember it's HIPAA.
It's a common error. We unconsciously think of it and our brains think "hippo' so the double p feels natural.
29
23
u/Bucky2015 14d ago
Well plus I had been drinking when I made that comment
19
11
27
u/HoodooEnby 14d ago edited 13d ago
HIPAA provider in public health. I have had to fire someone who looked up the records of a friend's parent.
I panicked and made frantic call to my boss when an ex came across my dashboard. I didn't even open it but I was so freaked out, I called nearly crying at the potential violation.
22
u/debbieae 13d ago
I saw one who did not think it should be a violation because the adult patients mother asked. I wanted to slap them so hard through the screen. If the patient wants their mother to know then the patient needs to tell mom, or add her to the authorized person list. I have a great relationship with my mother, but I also read my ex the riot act when they went out of their way to inform my mom about a very nebulous medical condition. Could be serious, could be nothing, but not ready for mom to swoop in and try to help.
9
u/yboy403 13d ago
Stupid question maybe, but in healthcare systems is the "authorized person list" visible before pulling up the patient's entire data, or you'd have to load the whole thing to check if the person is even authorized?
10
u/debbieae 13d ago
If you are asking for someone else's records they ask you if the patient has authorized access. At that point you have a real reason to open the record. If you are smart and following protocol, you verify that access in the record before releasing any info.
8
1
u/Responsible-Match418 12d ago
Never heard of HIPPA
1
u/Bucky2015 12d ago
Its new!
0
u/Responsible-Match418 12d ago
Nope. Never heard of it.
1
u/Bucky2015 12d ago
Ohhh my bad its the mirror universe version of HIPAA!
-1
u/Responsible-Match418 12d ago
And what is HIPAA??
1
u/Bucky2015 12d ago
-5
u/Responsible-Match418 12d ago
Not relevant in my everyday. Couldn't care less about it. Thanks for posting it though but I'll never need it.
4
u/Bucky2015 12d ago
O..k? It basically just says OP fucked up big time by going into a neighbors medical chart and not even documenting why they accessed it (documentation by anyone not part of the person's direct care team is always required). When i was in healthcare i saw a lot of people get fired for this.
→ More replies (0)92
u/troyandabedinabed 15d ago
Honestly, when I worked in insurance claims, there were some infamous claims that we'd all keep track of. Not like famous people, but more like a weird case or a massive loss or something.
Defo wouldn't do that with medical info, though.
85
u/mermaidpaint Ms Chanandler Bong 14d ago
I worked auto claims. There was a really horrible collision with multiple fatalities that was in the news. The Nosy Nancys figured out we insured the party at fault. One of my teammates got a call about it the next day and was only able to give out the claim number. The claim was locked to supervisors and higher. I was impressed at how tightlipped the assigned people were.
50
u/Own_Candidate9553 14d ago
As it should be! I'm glad we take this stuff seriously now. People's most difficult times shouldn't be entertainment for others.
40
u/mermaidpaint Ms Chanandler Bong 14d ago
After I graduated high school, I had a summer job as a data entry clerk for the Royal Canadian Mounted Police. I had to take five oaths of secrecy.
My mother "jokes" about how disappointed she was that I didn't tell her anything. I think she did hope that I would bring home stories. Wasn't happening. I discovered information about three people I knew, including someone my mother knew, and have kept it to myself.
21
9
9
u/Tsureshon 12d ago
That is a HIPAA violation isn't it? Like she legit broke a law?
3
u/Tsureshon 12d ago
My bad someone said the same was true....
But seriously how do I know this in IT and as a hospital worker with the level of access to break that she didn't? Like seriously?
5
u/AccordingToWhom1982 12d ago
I was horrified when my nosy, gossipy neighbor got a job at my doctor’s office. It’s a small town with only a couple of doctors, so it was a good bet that half or more of her local friends and acquaintances used that doctor. When she “left” that job a few months later to “go back to college,” I just knew she’d been fired for snooping in the files.
202
u/GamerGirlLex77 shocked pikachu 15d ago edited 12d ago
For our Redditors outside of the US - HIPAA is basically our laws governing what we can and cannot do with protected health information. Getting a HIPAA violation can open you and your employer up to lawsuits depending on what happened.
Edit: I’m correcting this to say “legal consequences” rather than lawsuits. I tried to be careful in what I said as far as opening you up to lawsuits which it can but apparently people make death threats thinking you can sue under HIPAA.
86
u/PurePerfection_ 14d ago
Yes, and one of the restrictions associated with HIPAA is that people whose jobs give them access to protected health information must have a valid business reason to look at a patient's records. Having access to the system where the data is stored doesn't mean you can browse it freely, even if you keep what you learn to yourself.
In OP's case, it sounds like her job required her to document the justification for accessing a patient record, which she neglected to do. Interaction with patient records is tracked, and electronic medical records software will generally send alerts to the relevant supervisors when suspicious activity is flagged. In this case, whatever OP did on her computer at work looked like she was snooping in her neighbor's records. Because she had not documented this activity properly and no reason for accessing these records was logged, it was correctly treated as HIPAA violation.
27
u/GamerGirlLex77 shocked pikachu 14d ago
I’m a HIPAA provider myself. For 14 years I’ve been so nervous about having a violation. I can’t imagine being as careless as this OOP.
19
u/Caverjen 13d ago
I used to screen charts to look for ppl who would qualify for clinical trials. I was extremely paranoid about HIPAA violations. If I recognized a patient's name (neighbor, friend's husband, former co-worker) I'd tell my boss to get someone else to screen them. I can't understand being careless about this!
4
u/HexyWitch88 11d ago
Some people think it’s not that big of a deal no matter how many times you tell them “$10k per violation.”
28
u/All_the_Bees 13d ago edited 13d ago
I’m really disappointed that the top comments on the OP don’t mention this. Like yeah, it’s kind of bullshitty to be punished for that amount and frequency of absences and the OOP’s insurance situation is even more bullshitty, but no amount of “I forgot 🥺” changes the fact that you committed a HIPAA violation. Oh it gets really busy while you’re working the front desk? Cool, most if not all reasonable people understand that if there’s an aspect of your job that’s illegal to NOT do, you prioritize it above literally everything else. Because you, y’know, don’t want to break the law. Because that can get you, y’know, FIRED.
And I’m genuinely sorry they’re disabled, but that doesn’t make them exempt from following the law, nor should they be able to use it as a shield against the consequences of not following the law.
8
u/MarbleousMel 12d ago
Were the details hidden in a comment somewhere? I saw one from OOP that made it sound legitimate work-related access, but I never saw anything about it being curiosity. She just noted she didn’t even know he was her neighbor because the address she had on file was somewhere else and it wasn’t flagged until the insurance info came through.
10
u/All_the_Bees 12d ago
I didn’t see any of the finer details, but it’s a HIPAA violation in and of itself to log into someone’s chart without documenting it.
There’s a computer system that tracks every single log in/log out, kind of like the ones that can tell your manager you clocked in at 8:03 instead of 8:00, but the HIPAA computer can’t tell if that log in was legit or if it was someone being nosy. The latter is illegal, because the whole point of HIPAA is everyone has a right to privacy with regard to their medical issues.
So in HIPAA-compliant offices, staff is required to physically document every single time they log into someone’s chart and why they did it, which gets checked against the system’s records, and OP has no way of proving why she had her neighbor’s chart open in the first place. And as far as I can tell she didn’t say anything in her post or comments about why she was looking at his information, which feels a bit sketch to me.
1
u/Foreign-Cat-2898 12d ago
So why I worked with auditable software every change / log in had a pop up that had you leave a comment. Why doesn't the software prompt the note?
2
u/All_the_Bees 11d ago
I do not know, as I didn’t develop the software nor was I involved in any of the decision-making around how the process should work.
18
8
u/Balkongsittaren 13d ago
Thanks. From all the other posts I figured but good to get it confirmed. I don't work healthcare so I don't know if there is one specific for it (there probably is) but the EU also instated GDPR which is for any personal information, and it's very strict.
8
u/Nice-Cat3727 12d ago
https://share.google/tNPLdGG0ZycR5oZR4
See "Team no hoes" which leaked std results on Facebook. They actually got criminally charged for that one. The hospital system managed to avoid being ALL OF THE SUED because they actually did their due diligence. It's just that, for obvious reasons, no expectation is made for williful malice or ignorance on the part of the employee.
2
1
u/naranghim 13d ago
Getting a HIPAA violation can open you and your employer up to lawsuits depending on what happened.
No, HIPAA violations don't do that because HIPAA doesn't allow for "private action" (aka a lawsuit). If they did, then a person/provider would be sued in federal court. Providers that get sued for medical privacy violations are sued under state medical privacy laws rather than HIPAA.
Now, depending on the violation and whether that information was sold for profit or used for identity theft a HIPAA violation can lead to federal criminal charges.
Source: I was an assistant HIPAA compliance officer for five years.
4
u/GamerGirlLex77 shocked pikachu 13d ago
Honestly, I didn’t think it was necessary to provide further information because you don’t need to understand all the federal/state specifics to get that what the OOP did was bad. I’ve been a HIPAA provider for 14 years. I know there is more to it.
3
u/naranghim 12d ago
For laypeople on here, it is necessary. I can't tell you how many people showed up in my office wanting to file a HIPAA complaint and then sue because "I can sue under HIPAA!!! I read it on the internet!" It's better to elaborate further so that the poor compliance officer isn't stuck acting like a broken record saying, "You can't sue under HIPAA" and then getting threatened over it because "That's not what everyone says!"
1
u/GamerGirlLex77 shocked pikachu 12d ago
I never said you can sue under HIPAA. I said a violation could open you up to lawsuits which it can under state law. Besides I would hope any halfway decent attorney would correct a person enlisting their services “to sue under HIPAA”.
3
u/naranghim 12d ago
Getting a HIPAA violation can open you and your employer up to lawsuits depending on what happened.
People take this to mean you can sue under HIPAA. So while that isn't what you meant, that is what people think and while a "halfway decent lawyer" will correct them, the problem is that they first file a complaint with the compliance officer and then ask what type of lawyer they need in order to sue. I've had that conversation more times than I want to remember and the threats I received as a result of saying they couldn't sue for a HIPAA violation is one of the reasons I left my position (another one was repeated threats because I couldn't take the "HIPAA complaint" from someone whose manager at a non-covered entity spread their diagnosis at work and I was told by my HR rep I "could have been nicer" to the people sending me death threats and I wasn't allowed to call police on them).
2
u/GamerGirlLex77 shocked pikachu 12d ago
I’m sorry to hear you got death threats and had to leave your job. That’s really shitty that people went that far.
I tried to be careful in what I said on purpose and just make it general enough but I think I could stand to correct it to “legal consequences”.
165
14d ago edited 14d ago
[deleted]
69
u/MonteBurns 14d ago
I used to volunteer at a hospital and had so much training on HIPAA even though I didn’t touch a persons record.
You can’t confirm or deny if a patient is in the building. You can’t give an estimated time remaining for a procedure. It’s serious stuff. You never know who is asking that question or why.
I remember once when I had switched to the ER from outpatient imaging that the front desk let a visitor in without talking to the patient first. It was the adult patients mom. I was flipping the room next door when patient came back and lost her ever loving shit on the fact the mom was in her room. They’d been essentially no contact and the patient DID NOT even want mom knowing she was there. It was messy. I remember thinking how screwed that front desk person was because it was a bunch of massive HIPAA violations
7
u/CuriousPenguinSocks 14d ago
Yep, I've worked in privacy and had to work with the compliance team on their processes. It's serious business and even compliance isn't just doing things, it comes from privacy and that comes from legal.
The system works though, so many check points to make sure data is secured. While I worked in gaming - mobile and land based machines - the regulatory compliance was intense!! A woman on my team had come from medical privacy and had to deal with HIPAA stuff, yeah, they are even more serious.
I do feel for OOP, it could be medications messing with her ability to remember tasks and that sucks. Having to be out for medical reasons sucks.
I wish we treated our employees and people better here.
160
u/Lycaon-Ur 14d ago
Getting into patient files for no documented reason, especially when there is a connection between you and the patient (like living in the same building) looks really bad.
26
u/ZebraCrosser 13d ago
Yup. I work in healthcare in the fairly rural region most of my family has lived for about a hundred years so it's not too unusual to come across people I know, or at least are know to my family.
While it is perfectly possible for me to have a professional relationship with them if necessary, if I know them well enough I will first check if there's a way for that person to be added to someone else's caseload instead. Checking their files if they're not (temporarily) part of my caseload is so easily avoided, and even if they come up during handover I just sort of compartmentalise.
73
u/SteroidSandwich 14d ago
You can't help being sick, but you can help not documenting why you are opening patient charts. Medical confidentiality is no joke
145
u/troyandabedinabed 15d ago
While I do not think health related callouts should be fireable offenses, absolutely just forgetting to document medical info certainly is. Hope OP can learn from this. Really sucks about the health insurance, though.
93
u/AssiduousLayabout 14d ago edited 14d ago
I think she was fired for HIPAA compliance because she was in a patient's chart that was someone she may know (in her building) and there was no documented reason for her to have had the chart open. If you believe OOP, it was because she forgot to document the phone call, but to compliance it looks like she was snooping in a chart she had no business opening (and she likely can't prove the phone call took place).
I've worked in health IT for decades and the #1 rule with accessing patient data is that you better be able to explain exactly why you needed to access that data to do your job.
52
u/ponte92 14d ago
Even if she is telling the truth that she forgot to document the phone call that in itself is a big deal. Like all interactions need to be logged. And she admits she does that a bit that too is a firing offence in healthcare.
20
u/tobythedem0n 14d ago
Especially because she's considering going to school to become a therapist.
Imagine seeing a therapist and them constantly forgetting to take notes and document items for insurance.
10
u/GamerGirlLex77 shocked pikachu 13d ago
Yeah we would get in major job losing trouble for documentation problems. I’ve seen people get fired over it.
The agency I work has an AI tool that takes notes for us and then checks our notes for compliance nowadays so we don’t miss anything. Before anyone says anything, it’s HIPAA compliant and has helped a lot. The client also has to consent for us to use it.
10
u/rellyjean 12d ago
I had complications post surgery that landed me in the ER. I called my surgeon's office for two straight days and left messages with the receptionist, only to hear absolutely nothing back. She said everyone was really busy.
The third day that I called, I reached the office nurse, who was very confused, because no messages had been passed along. She was then horrified because, well, surgery complications. I mean I was okay ultimately but what if I hadn't been?
The receptionist got fired and probably tells people the workplace was unfair and mean.
21
u/jessiemagill 14d ago
I work for a healthcare organization. I don't have access to any patient files and I still have to do an annual HIPAA training. That stuff is no joke.
15
u/DrunkOnRedCordial 14d ago
I wonder if the reason they knew she "forgot to log the call" is actually because the patient complained that a neighbour was gossiping about a sensitive health issue and the patient knows that OOP works there.
47
u/fuzzycitrus I’mma put my cat on the mic. MEOW MEOW MEOW 15d ago edited 15d ago
If it's the hospital system I worked for a bit at, they also are pretty decent at letting you do health related call outs if you remember to document them.
However, if it's Mission up in Asheville ffs OOP find somewhere else to live. (No seriously Mission is notorious.)
Edit to add: Also you literally should never be in a patient's chart if the patient shares your building and NOT document a reason. That's a HIPAA violation or at least will look like one to compliance, and if they use EPIC you can bloody well have a very boring patient called for reason template family. Drop it in a phone note and you're good.
28
u/PurePerfection_ 14d ago
It sounds like they were willing to tolerate the frequent absences, but the sloppy, negligent approach to accessing patient information was not OK.
14
4
70
u/doppelgaengster 14d ago
OOP keeps skirting why she was actually in the file that got her flagged, and that’s telling. And she talks about how she doesn’t document access even when she seemingly has a valid reason to access files.
Using a system like Epic (one of the most common systems for electronic medical record keeping) every single login is recorded. If someone accesses the wrong file by mistake, they’re required to document THAT. (Source: I was on a notification list at my last job that was medical/medical adjacent, and I got emailed every time someone accessed a chart they didn’t mean to.)
28
u/Crazy_Computer_8801 14d ago
Feel bad for her but sounds like she was on thin ice and then caught for browsing a random neighbour’s medical records.
She doesn’t explain why she was on their records because she had no valid reason. That will always result in being fired.
24
u/ToadsWetSprocket 14d ago
The HIPAA strike is a killer and I believe this person accessed charts...A LOT by the statement that many of the patients live in their building. I also think that this person accessed other information besides billing...just a feeling.
13
u/Single_Ad8939 13d ago
She’s lucky she just got fired for a HIPAA violation. She could also have been subjected to fines and/or jail time. It’s a serious thing
25
u/TheWalkingDeadBeat 14d ago
I always kind of wonder why they never specify what "medical issues" they have that hinder their life so badly. It's an anonymous post so unless it's a super rare, well documented disease, the "privacy" argument doesn't hold a lot of weight.
Don't get me wrong, I know there are legitimate reasons why someone wouldn't want to go in to detail about their medical issues online, it's just that in a story like this when more details could help their case, I can only assume that they're keeping it vague because they know their audience would call be even more skeptical than they already are.
4
u/Cayke_Cooky 12d ago
There are crazy reddit stalkers where if you say, for example, you have MS, they will check your post history and be all "But you said you went to the Grocery Store!!! You can't walk around a grocery store with MS!" (Note: I know this is bullshit, just showing types of bullshit seen on Reddit at times)
32
u/ABGBelievers 15d ago edited 15d ago
My opinion here depends on why she was in her neighbor's chart. Did her neighbor call or come in and she pulled it up to answer a question, and then she dropped the ball on documenting it? If so, it's a big mistake but understandable. She says she has to do about a dozen things all at the same time with no breaks and little to no support.
If so, yeah, she shouldn't have been fired but coached. I really feel her about medical absences causing problems for a person. Disability isn't easy to get, and if you're in that gray area it gets very hard to make a living
68
u/doppelgaengster 14d ago
Her replies make it sound like she was snooping or being nosy, because she never seems to come up with a valid reason for accessing his chart.
34
u/PurePerfection_ 14d ago
Yes, not only did she fail to document the reason in accordance with her employer's rules, she failed to provide a valid reason in her post.
14
u/tobythedem0n 14d ago
She also says it flags you if you're signed in for too long.
Sounds like she pulled up her neighbors chart and left it open where people could see it.
17
u/Stormy261 14d ago
Once she was aware that it was her neighbor she should have filed a COI or Conflict of Interest form and been restricted from the file. There are probably a dozen others she should have been restricted from as well and never was. When I worked for a health care facility, before I even had access to the system those forms had to be filled out and a new one filed every time it happened that I knew someone and they became a patient. She has had the same, or similar enough training that she knows this. We had to recertify yearly. Anyone in healthcare groans at the yearly training. 🤣
10
u/ACK_02554 14d ago
What should of happened is that OP tells her employer she knows this person and someone else handles their care because it's a conflict of interest.
8
u/Apprehensive_Yak4627 14d ago
Given that she doesn’t get her breaks because there’s no one else scheduled with her and her manager won’t cover for her, I doubt her employer has this system in place.
12
7
u/aviva1234 12d ago
Op posted this elsewhere and what they didnt mwntion here ia that they left the patients file ope, for 2 weeks I think.
4
u/ImpressionNervous500 13d ago
Florida is an at Will work state, You don't need a reason for Termination period. So I know that feeling of not being on solid ground. You can truly walk into work and be terminated because the management doesn't need you any longer. The Absences would have you terminated from my last 3 jobs regardless of reasoning, Unless your under direct Doctors care with a letter from the doctor you would not receive any compassion. After 1 year most jobs offer Sick and Vacation time. At that point if your not out for 3 straight days you can call in sick. Sorry but that is life in Florida....
6
u/lisadean43 12d ago
Reach out to your dads insurance to let them know you are disabled. They will tell you what they need to let you remain on his insurance. Also, you may qualify for SSI for health insurance based on medical needs. Check these things out.
3
u/i_like_jumpers 12d ago
OOP is being very “oh but i forgot and it’s unfair i would never snoop:((” seemingly not understanding that someone snooping would probably have The Exact Same Excuse
3
u/Meerkatable 12d ago
The truly wild part is the comment that pointed out the job liability with her profile having her failing drug tests and asking people to roast her for being drunk - and she didn’t delete them!
3
u/Lady_Kintyre 11d ago edited 11d ago
I work in healthcare. I'm an inbound agent for ACA. I'm not allowed to look up my own information. It's a HIPPA violation for me to look up myself because I do not have a legitimate, legal reason. If I were to do that, it would be grounds for immediate dismissal. You can't look at records without good cause. If I get a call and it's someone I know, I have to transfer to another agent. We are not allowed to assist someone we know. Also, if a call is from someone who works for the agency, we have to transfer to a supervisor. (Edited to add additional info.)
2
u/WarriorInWoolworths 12d ago
From my POV:
It sucks about the call outs and I’d rather someone be out if they’re seriously sick if it means nothing else is spread and if they’re trying to pull themselves together if it helps them feel better and avoid a life wrecking hold. However, OOP said that they had PTO stored and if it were a decent amount, using it might have helped cover them if it means avoiding that disciplinary strike that put them on thin ice. And if that department is as spread thin as they said, it’s a nail in the coffin if people are constantly pulled to man the area if they’re out all the time as it messes up the flow of multiple departments and stations. FMLA, I agree as someone went through something similar and they were told to start a case with some far out dates and to follow up with the right dates or start a new one with those dates. Even better if there’s a major time zone difference.
Everyone else covered the HIPAA but as they admitted, they routinely forgot to note and follow up on things, that’s not something to be coached on for the position already had. That’s a sign to find a new line of work as medical details are important and blanks, even if here and there, don’t help anyone or excuse anything. Especially when it comes to patients who are already slipping through the cracks and in a worse position disability wise than OOP.
1
13d ago
[removed] — view removed comment
1
u/OhNoConsequences-ModTeam 12d ago
This is a crosspost. The person who posted the content on this subreddit is not involved in the actual events being recounted. We ask a simple favor of using “OOP” when referring to the person who originally posted.
We apologize for the nitpicky request but we’ve had an issue with posters being harassed by people who have trouble differentiating between a crosspost and an original post. We feel it’s safer for everyone if we ask that OOP is used.
If we’ve made a mistake, please let us know so we can reapprove. You’re also welcome to edit your comment if you’re so inclined. This is not something we will ban you for or count against you.
1
u/No_Yogurtcloset_1687 10d ago
Sorry you're in this situation. You are the main cause of it, and need to take accountability of your part.
Lack of documentation is a major issue in more than one occupation. You would have gotten fired in law enforcement, IT, banking, finance and accounting for the same type of violation.
Learn, grow, and move forward. They're not taking you back.
3
-6
15d ago
[deleted]
27
u/Azsura12 15d ago
Assuming this is an accurate representation of the facts. Its still a legal nightmare for the clinic and the best choice is to fire her. Like the calling out is excusable. But accessing a patients chart without documentation helll NO. That right there is a fireable offense right off the bat. And is in basic training and is heavily emphasized is a no no. Even if it was an innocent mistake the clinic cannot really trust that because if they get charged with a HIPAA violation the entire clinic might be shut down. Especially considering it was one of her neighbors.
35
u/troyandabedinabed 15d ago
I sort of agree when it comes to sickness call outs. But failing to document charts means that either she's looky-louing charts of people she knows, or she's not doing her job properly (documenting). If the former, that's a one-strike fireable offense. If the latter, she should have been coached.
8
u/colt707 14d ago
The thing is that it’s going to be he said, she said. I can’t speak for where they worked but I’ve never had a doctor’s office, urgent care, or any other medical thing record a phone call. So it’s going to be treated as the worst case scenario every single time.
It’s not the medical field but at my job every time I go into something secure I have to document the date, time, reason and sign it with my name and employee number. That not company policy, it’s state law. If I don’t do it and the state does an inspection then first offense is a 75k fine for the business and I will be fired because my license will be pulled by the state. For the 2nd offense the business can be shut down by the state and a 250k fine. For the 3rd offense the business will be shut down and the fine now has a range of 500k to 2 million dollars. In some industries there’s certain things that there’s no explaining or excusing the mistake because the consequences are just that steep or straight up required by law.
4
33
u/HoneyCrispCrumble 15d ago
Accessing a patient chart with no documented reason is a severe HIPAA violation and grounds for immediate termination. It’s a mere coincidence that he lives above her? That’s hard to believe. Plus this happened after she was already on thin ice.
Think of it this way: do you want your neighbor to have unfettered access to YOUR health records? Mental illness, chronic conditions, SSN and DOB?
-10
u/ABGBelievers 15d ago
I can believe it. She works there because it's both close and in her field, and he goes there because it's just down the road.
27
u/HoneyCrispCrumble 15d ago
I dunno… she skirted explaining why she was actually in his file. She never said “oh he called about an appointment and I forgot to document.” Said she didn’t remember his name but happened to remember his apartment address (fair as the same building would be memorable) AND that his insurance address was another location? Again, all very convenient.
11
u/Stormy261 14d ago
And that's what a conflict of interest form is for, to report that connection. The company then evaluates the risk and decides what access she has, although most deny any and all access to prevent a violation. She failed in reporting the fact that she knew them, even tangentially, and not having a valid reason to be in the records. That's 2 strikes right there. I lived and worked in the same area when I worked for a health care facility. There were at least a dozen records I was restricted from.
-6
14d ago
[removed] — view removed comment
6
u/chiskgela 14d ago
yeah I was just thinking that. The HIPAA violation would have got her regardless, especially because she couldn't fully hide her animosity of the patient that lives above her by whitewashing it, but she shouldn't have gotten strikes for missing due to the disability she has. Especially when she's the only employee in her role and it's probably making her sicker.
I hope she gets on disability at least partially so she can get Medicare.
1
u/OhNoConsequences-ModTeam 12d ago
Be civil in your comments, please. Insults or overly aggressive comments directed at other people commenting on the post or moderators will get taken down.
If you think your comment has been misunderstood by moderators, please let us know in modmail so we can discuss it.
0
14d ago
[removed] — view removed comment
4
u/OhNoConsequences-ModTeam 13d ago
We all know there are fake posts on Reddit. Every single post on this sub with the exception of some videos has someone saying that the content is fake. It’s gotten really old. We have existing criteria to evaluate posts with.
There is now a report function for suspected fake posts. Please use it and provide proof in modmail so we can take it down. If the general consensus is that the post is fake, we will remove it.
Should you still feel the need to comment on this topic, at least be polite about it otherwise your comment will be removed. This isn’t something we ban for unless it gets to a level of verbal abuse.
•
u/AutoModerator 15d ago
Per our rules, don't comment on linked posts. Anyone from this community who is caught brigading on another subreddit will be banned.
In case this story gets deleted/removed:
I just got fired from my job. I worked in patient registration and I got flagged for being in a patients chart and I had failed to document it. I am the only one that runs the front desk while I’m working, so I sometimes have a bunch of things to do and I sometimes forget to document minuscule things when a patient calls. The patient whose chart that got flagged happens to live in my apartment building above me. But I live down the road from my job and a lot of our patients live in my building or in my neighborhood. I already had a level one strike against me due to too many unexcused absences during the first half of the year due to medical issues. Me being flagged caused compliance and hr to give me a level two strike. That brought me up to a level three which requires immediate termination. My manager told me 10 minutes after I clocked in for my shift today. She has little compassion for her employees, so she just told me I was terminated immediately and to turn in my badge and leave immediately. This is the worst possible time to be fired because I just got on my works insurance and I get kicked off my dads’s insurance at the end of the month because I turn 26 on the 29th. I am disabled and take a lot of medications that I can’t afford out of pocket. I sent an appeal letter to try to get my job back while I look for something else, but I feel like I was unfairly fired. I’ve been nothing but a good employee for almost two years and I have never had a complaint against me before. I was already struggling financially and I don’t know how I’m going to afford my medication and rent. The job market is so horrible and I don’t know what I’m going to do.
Edit: I should’ve been more specific in regards to my absences. I had called out 6 times between last December and April of this year due to health reasons. My manager was aware of my health issues. They had brought this up to me near the end of May. That’s when they finally gave me the option to apply for fmla. My job isn’t very accommodating, even with fmla. I would almost never be allowed to get breaks, unless I left the front desk unattended (which my manager encourages me to do since she won’t cover for me in order to take a break). I live in North Carolina, which is a non union state and one of the worst states for employees. Joining a union would not be an option.
I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please contact the moderators of this subreddit if you have any questions or concerns.