How would you respond to this reporter? What is the appropriate course of action?

Question

A local newspaper reporter comes into your unit wanting to set up an appointment to visit a patient for a photograph and to interview him about an accident he was in that put him in the hospital.

According to HIPAA Guidelines.

Answer 1

Hello Katy

The reporter would set up the appointment with the patient, not the hospital staff.

Privacy of Individual Identifiable Health Information  [45 CFR Parts 160 and 164] relates to medical staff using private information for marketing, research, and other uses.

Hospitals do not divulge non-public information about public patients and hardly anything about private patients.

HIPAA guidelines protect patients privacy, but patients cannot be blocked from allowing their stories to be made public.  If the patient wants to speak to a journalist, the hospital has no right to block the interview.

I do not believe any journalist would ever ask the hospital to arrange an interview -- but might ask on behalf of the patient when an interview might be convenient so the patient is not interrupted in making his or her story public.

Hope this answer helps you.