Nurse Arrest Puts Focus on Hospital Security, Policies

The nurse and the hospital acted appropriately in refusing to comply with the requests and demands of the police officer without the appropriate authority to do so, says William Hopkins, JD, partner in the Shackelford law firm in Austin, TX. As healthcare providers, the hospital and the nurse have a heightened burden to protect the privacy of the patient who is vulnerable and under their care, he says. Since HIPAA violations are based on the release and failure to protect the information, the police were seeking to push the hospital and nurse to violate HIPAA and the patient’s civil rights, he says.

Read the entire article at ACHMedia.com.