angry about info

lynne40 · April 2004

Hi all I need to vent You know all the new forms we all had to sign about who to release info to etc.? Well here's my dilemna. Some crazy woman(stalker) e mailed my husband that " I know your wife's medical history, and I noticed her hair is different, so is she in treatment again or what is going on?" Mind you this woman is not a friend and the only place she could have seen me was church!!! What is a person like this doing in church, and how does she know my medical history? And if she does someone in some office is blabbing and what if anything can I do to find out who is sharing my medical info? We live in a small town near a larger city. It is disheartening to think some unscupulous person is sharing my medical knowledge around, and what would they gain anyway, and what kind of sicko does this and observes the ill person at church and then comments? My husband e'd back "Leave me and my family the**** alone!!" then canceled his screen name. But I'n inscensed! THanks for letting me vent. Does anyone know how I could find out who has breached my privacy?
Lynne

mssue · April 2004

Dear Lynne,
Hi , I too live in a small town and sometimes people take it upon themselves to keep up with everyone elses business,when they should really mind there own,they are not always trying to hurt anyone but without thinking they sometimes do.
As for your personal information that is another story...... For my own job I handle customers personal info on a daily basis and with the new safe guard regulations it is a federal offense to disclose any information of a personal level to anyone accept for whom it pertains to.I have to keep customer files in a locked filing cabinet.The fine for being out of compliance is $11000. per day.If I were you I would start at the place that your information leaked from go straight to the top small town or not.IT IS THE LAW,you do have a right to your privacy .Good Luck and take good care of yourself.
w/love
Sue

judiek · April 2004

Lynne,

Is there anyway you could trace the email she sent? That's crazy...she obviously has no compassion for people with cancer. Hope you get to the bottom of this.

Warmly,

Judie

hummingbyrd · April 2004

Unfortunately anyone in your MD's office has access to your medical records (sec to lab tech) Then at the hospital, well you can just imagine where all your chart goes there. Someone from admissions, billing, med records, anyone on the floor, x-ray, and lab just to mention a few. Privacy of a medical record is a fallacy. Why they have us sign so many forms beats the heck out of me...false sense of security I suppose.
Friend had a miscarriage, someone in ultrasound got off at 5:00 and went home, told friend's stepmom before she had spoken to stepdaughter. Can you believe?! What a shock that was to the family, but nothing was done.
Good luck and God bless. Just try to overlook the ignorant people and pray for them to get a life of their own.
hummingbyrd

Future · April 2004

HIPPA (Health Portability Act) was designed to protect our personal information. If you feel that person got the information from a health care setting (hospital/office, etc.) I can't tell you how to identify the original source but with any area that had information, I encourage you to contact the patient advocate or office manager for those locations - they need to be reeducating their staff. I am a breast cancer survivor, but I'm also a health care worker myself and there is no excuse or justification for anyone to share someone else's health information without permission.

If you feel comfortable with your pastor, confide in him and see if he'll make a generic comment (that doesn't identify you) during one of his messages. Church family should be supporting - not creating stress. I know my church family was great when I was diagnosed and the elders/pastor did not tell anyone anything without my permission.

It's your decision what information you share and when. Try not to let insensitive impact your outlook.

Future

lynne40 · April 2004

Thanks to all of you for answering me. I was extremely upset and also disturbed that someone I don't know, knows so much about me! I know who the e mail came from but have no way to know which office gave out my info. Thanks for the suggestion to talk to a patient advocate at the offices. Maybe by mentioning it they might have an idea of who in their office blabbed. I feel better just knowing I can vent! Thanks to all of you and God Bless. I went to church today even though I was a little paranoid, but I had 2 of my children with me and I reminded myself why I was there and I got through it OK!

DeeNY711 · May 2004

lynne40 said:
Thanks to all of you for answering me. I was extremely upset and also disturbed that someone I don't know, knows so much about me! I know who the e mail came from but have no way to know which office gave out my info. Thanks for the suggestion to talk to a patient advocate at the offices. Maybe by mentioning it they might have an idea of who in their office blabbed. I feel better just knowing I can vent! Thanks to all of you and God Bless. I went to church today even though I was a little paranoid, but I had 2 of my children with me and I reminded myself why I was there and I got through it OK!

I don't know how I missed this topic except that work has been so brutal lately, I skipped a lot of computer visits. What the woman has done is a violation of federal law. Find out to whom you can report this incident. There may be very little they can actually do to find the source of information leakage, but they can try, and boy oh boy, I'd love to be a fly on the wall the day the feds showed up to discuss the matter with her!

I am so terribly sorry this has happened to you. It is something we all fear. It is bad enough to deal with the tests, the diagnosis, the surgery and the treatment without having to fear disclosure of PRIVATE INFORMATION protected by federal law.
Love,
Denise

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