‘Tis the kick off to the holiday season.  Time for families and friends to gather and celebrate one another, be thankful for life’s blessings, and eat way too much!  It is time to catch up and reminisce about the past year and all the fun and challenges that were faced.  With so many people working in healthcare, it is also easy to talk about that challenging and difficult patient you had, or how you did the right steps to save someone’s life.  While it is important to talk about work and all the good and bad that comes with it, keep in mind the privacy and security of patient information as you are celebrating the holidays.

So let’s celebrate HIPAA – Thanksgiving Style

T – Treat protected health information with confidentiality and integrity

H – Have a good time discussing successes but leave out the PHI details

A – Always remember that protecting patient information is a foundational duty

N – Never use patient identifiable data outside of work purposes

K – Kindly remind others to keep PHI private if it comes up in a discussion

S – Save the details for the medical record, where patient information should stay

G – Gossiping never leads to good outcomes – especially involving patient information

I – Imagine how the patient would feel knowing their PHI was disclosed during a holiday meal

V – Vow to respect the patients and remove PHI from conversations

I – Insulting patients by releasing and sharing PHI never has good outcomes

N – Nobody needs to know patient information unless they are involved in the care and treatment

G – Give all patients of healthcare the feeling of security knowing their information won’t be shared

Protecting patient information needs to happen both inside and outside the walls of work. Any information that you learn or gain for your day to day job duties about a patient, needs to stay confidential and not be released to others.  Information accidentally or inadvertently shared during a meal or during basic discussion can lead to a data breach, which impacts so many people including the healthcare organization, the patient, and the people sharing and/or receiving the information.

So, as we gather this holiday season, remember what the Hippocratic Oath states:

“What I may see or hear in the course of the treatment or even outside of the treatment in regard to the life of men, which on no account one must spread abroad, I will keep to myself, holding such things shameful to be spoken about.”

Happy Thanksgiving!!!!!!!