When Is It Okay Under HIPAA to Report Domestic Violence?

I really dont bleive in secrets and I don't bleive in keeping the abusers secrets. the whole site trys to encourage peole to stop the secret keeping--but anturally there are exceptions and that has to be on a case by case basis--reach about what health care professionals face everyday with the secret keeping aspect of health care


When Is It Okay Under HIPAA to Report Domestic Violence?: "With or without a victim's request, protected health information (PHI) is not protected if a crime was involved, Stark found. 'Our attorney told us that if we feel that a patient is in danger, we have every right to report it [and] we could probably be held liable if we didn't.'

But there is a twist. Stark says caregivers want to be cautious and not jump to conclusions or make false accusations. 'You wouldn't want to do anything.that would prevent patients from seeking care because they might start to think that every time they come in, their privacy is going to be breached.'

Jon Burke, a consultant on privacy and security issues, agrees. He says a hospital should take advantage of all the options it has before contacting police. 'If a patient comes in with a variety of wound patterns that show an abuse context, it is a no-brainer: Make the call,' he tells RPP. But, he says, 'in a normal hospital, there is a psychiatrist on call or a social worker on call. Before you put someone in the system, you really need to consider [those options].. Try to relate to what you would do in the course of normal life. Knowing what you know, how likely would you be to report this? If you know that someone is beating the hell out of somebody else, yeah, report it. But if you're not sure, then ask."