I’ve got a friend, a man in his mid 50s. He works at a bar I frequent. Last week we heard that he was no call/no show, totally unlike him. He didn’t come in to pick up his paycheck, and he told the last person to talk to him that he “felt awful” but didn’t want to call the ambulance.
So now he’s at the University of Washington hospital, in critical condition, on a ventilator. And that’s all anyone knows, because they’re not family. They don’t even know what exactly is wrong.
He has no family. He was married, at some point, but I don’t know if they can get in contact or if she’d care. I don’t know if he has kids.
His entire social group is his co-workers, and they’re just sick with worry. But they can’t get any info, and they can’t visit, because they’re not family. They’ve tried.
It makes me so sad that here is my friend, who I’ve joked with and talked to, lying in an ICU bed with none of his friends around because they don’t have the correct DNA.
I know HIPAA serves a purpose. I do. But damn…here’s a man lonely in the worst possible position, with people who want to see him, and they can’t.
Religious-type people, his name is Gene.
Is there a legal process for getting around HIPAA? I know it’s a federal guideline, but is there local recourse to get visitation and info? (Especially from someone who can’t speak?) And I will say that my first impulse was to talk to the people I know who work at that hospital and ask for info, but I know HIPAA is there for a reason and I will not violate it.
I know how you feel. When my childrens father was in the hospital in pretty bad shape they would not give me or his children any information. His sister was the only one listed as a family member that could have access to his medical condition. We were allowed to visit him though and at that time he gave permission for our son to know his medical condition.
I would try contacting patient advisory at the hospital. They may be able to lead you in the right direction.
Is there anyway to google to see if you can contact his ex? Did he mention her name or where she might be? She can’t have access if they are divorced but if they had children then they can.
That just makes me sick. HIPAA is not what I’d call the bane of my existence, but it certainly is an almost daily annoyance.
Visitation rules in the ICU do vary from hospital to hospital. The ones I’ve had experience with have not staunchly restricted visits to family members only. See if this guy’s co-workers have tried calling the unit to verify visiting hours before attempting to see him. Right now, the only thing off the top of my head is that maybe they tried to get in when “visiting hours” were closed. That’s my optimistic hope, anyway - I of course have no idea what the policies are at that facility.
I’m not endorsing this at all, but I do know that there are people who have gotten around HIPAA by simply lying and presenting themselves as family members. I don’t recommend this course of action, however, because the nursing staff will probably figure it out quickly.
Unfortunately, it sounds like the only thing to do at this point is keep calling for status updates (critical, fair, stable) until something changes and try to visit then. A very persistent friend might try getting in touch with the ICU social worker at the hospital, explain the situation and see what they can do.
Trust me, the nursing staff taking care of Gene probably don’t enjoy the fact that he’s lying in that bed all alone without any visitors than you do. Stupid HIPAA.
I am a religious-type person, and I’ll remember his name.
It was way before HIPAA but this worked for a friend of mine. When my son was born he came to visit me in the hospital but it was way after normal visiting hours so he claimed he was the father so they let him right in.
But the nursing staff also thinks HIPAA is largely a pile of crap. As long as you aren’t obvious about lying, they don’t care. They will probably even wink at you when you say you are his “son” or “brother”. If you say either one of those and you are a woman :smack: (doh!) then you leave them no choice and you won’t get in.
Does the hospital have a “patient advocate”? or a chaplin? If so, why not try to talk to one of them and explain the situation, about his lack of close family members, but the existence of a good circle of concerned friends?
Does HIPPA in the US extend to visiting rights? I thought it was about health information, not who can come and visit the patient?
That’s what I was wondering. I’ve spent the last few weeks visiting someone at a couple of different hospitals (including a stint at the ICU), and haven’t had anyone ask what the relationship was before I was allowed in. At one of the hosptials, you had to sign in at the front desk, and get a pass, but that was all.
However, there is a charge nurse in a hospital where I’ve gone to enroll patients in studies who enforces HIPAA with an iron fist. Anyone not immediately associated with a patient’s care was in violation of HIPAA rules (as she understood or conveniently applied them). The hospital lawyers were also runnig amok with interpretation of the rules. I was not allowed to see patients or their names unless they were enrolled in my study, yet their names were written on publicly viewable white boards. What is claimed to HIPAA is not always HIPAA, and finding an advoacate (chaplain, sympathetic staff MD) as Northern Piper suggests may help.
Oh, just go visit. The worst that can happen is that they stop you… it’s certainly worth the risk to find out. They’re not going to put you in jail or anything - if they’re being really strict about it then they know that they’d be the ones potentially violating HIPAA, not you. I’ve visited non-family members in hospitals post-HIPAA with no problems whatsover. Sometimes just a little chutzpah is all it takes.
How many national headlines have you seen in the last 5 years about all the major HIPAA violations out there, the concomitant lawsuits, etc.? Me neither.
Thanks for all the help and advice. I think there might be two problems: first, HIPAA prevents release of information over the phone without a release and second, as picunurse points out, the ICU at the hospital restricts visits to family members. I know at least one person has been up there and been refused admittance to the ICU.
I’m sure one of them could fake being his sister as long as she doesn’t bump into anyone she knows. One other slight difficulty is that he may have been found “down” - unconscious in his apartment. (His friends had been calling hospitals, jails, etc. for several days and were unable to find him.) If someone presented themselves as a family member, would the staff try to get medical history out of that person, if the patient has not been conscious to give it?
If so, just say that you haven’t been in contact with your “brother” for a few years now, and shame on you, you really don’t feel qualified to answer any medical questions about him because you have been a terrible “sister”.
I think you’re showing a great amount of care and attention for a friend, MerryMagdalen, and I think that’s extremely commendable. It’d be great if more of us had friends such as yourself.
Unfortunately, any advice on how to get around either HIPAA or hospital rules should not be given on this message board. It’s nothing personal, but we don’t want the SDMB to be used as a sounding board on how to outfox the law or a hospital.