Provides Hipaa Compliant
provides hipaa compliant
Is it in violation of HIPAA to tell police that a wanted person is at the hospital?
I work at a hospital, and tonight, an individual presented to the Emergency Department. I happened to recognize the individual as a sex offender, who was non-compliant in regards to notifying the police of his change of address. The address he provided me, did not match the last known address that the police had.
I contacted the police non-emergency line, and told them that this individual was at the hospital. I did not provide the new address he had given me, but I did tell them that he was here. He was not listed as a confidential patient. Am I violating HIPAA?
I don’t think that reporting him to authorities if they are looking for him is a crime and as for the HIPPA law if one feels threatened when treating any person the police can be there to make sure he doesn’t cause any harm to the staff or any harm to patients. Think about patients who may be in other rooms and he could just wonder in there and do something. If a patient didn’t say anything till later like some rape victims don’t even call the police by the time they said anything the guy could be out of there and to late to find or catch him. I think you did the right thing.
