# Was this a HIPAA/patient confidentiality violation?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-this-a-hipaa-patient-confidentiality-violation/331421>\
**Category:** In My Humble Opinion\
**Created:** [November 17, 2005, 1:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-this-a-hipaa-patient-confidentiality-violation/331421 "2005-11-17T01:13:45Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Page:** 2

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**Author:** ![Athena](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/35a633/32.png) [@Athena](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Athena)\
**Post date:** [November 18, 2005, 3:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-this-a-hipaa-patient-confidentiality-violation/331421/21 "2005-11-18T03:19:02Z")

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> [@missbunny](#):
>
> It would not be logical (even without the existence of HIPAA) to assume that every hospital employee should have access to every patient’s medical information. Certainly the cooks, janitors, IT people, administrative staff, etc., do not need to know what Joe Smith is there for. Nurses and doctors in unrelated departments most likely will have no need to know either. The Payroll lady definitely doesn’t need to know.

Yup. I’ve been working on writing hospital administration software, and one of the biggest things we’re designing is the patient confidentiality bits. A clear relationship between a patient and a caregiver must exist in order for that caregiver to see the patient information. Just because you work at a hospital - even if you’re the top doctor bigshot - doesn’t mean you have to right to see any patient info except your own patients. There are exceptions in case of emergency.

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