Who has rights to patient information under HIPAA?

Who has rights to patient information under HIPAA?

I work as the Nursing Quality Improvement Coordinator for a hospital. Our HIPAA coordinator has told me that I have no right to access patient files. As the Nursing QI, I do investigate incident reports, and of course we collect data for compliance with CMS control monitoring. Do I have the right to patient information as a QI person?

    Requires Free Membership to View

    SearchSecurity.com members gain immediate and unlimited access to breaking industry news, virus alerts, new hacker threats, highly focused security newsletters, and more -- all at no cost. Join me on SearchSecurity.com today!

    Michael S. Mimoso, Editorial Director

    By submitting your registration information to SearchSecurity.com you agree to receive email communications from TechTarget and TechTarget partners. We encourage you to read our Privacy Policy which contains important disclosures about how we collect and use your registration and other information. If you reside outside of the United States, by submitting this registration information you consent to having your personal data transferred to and processed in the United States. Your use of SearchSecurity.com is governed by our Terms of Use. You may contact us at webmaster@TechTarget.com.

There is no simple answer to that question. HIPAA is pretty nebulous about who should access specific types of data, so that really puts the decision in the hands of whichever auditor shows up to evaluate the controls and processes that protect patient data.

This question is essentially about right and wrong. Unless there is a clear need for a QI to access patient information, then he or she shouldn't. Period. If the QI is conducting an investigation, driven by either an incident or as part of a process improvement initiative, then it might be acceptable. However, the patient should be notified ahead of time, and give his or her permission to proceed.

Yes, that's a hassle. And yes, it's possible to structure the HIPAA notification to allow access to the patient's data under certain circumstances. But that doesn't make it ethically right. The question is: What's best for the patient? Would he or she want a QI rummaging through his or her data? Probably not.

More information:

This was first published in July 2008