Welcome to Our Office Practice!

1. Welcome to Our Office Practice! Some reminders about Patient Confidentiality and Trust

2. Welcome to Our Office, Our Patients! • We are proud to have you join our office, our patients. • You are entering our world of patients and their very personal medical problems. • Be respectful.

3. We want to be a part of your education • We want to help you achieve your objectives in this clinical experience in our office. • But even more, we want to help you evolve in your goals of becoming an excellent physician.

4. We welcome you… • To the joy and responsibility… …of caring for our patients and their families. • One responsibility is to abide by HIPAA rules that guide patient confidentiality.

5. H.I.P.P.A.= The Federal Health Insurance Portability & Accountability Act of 1996/2003 • HIPAA rules were invented to… • Balance between improving the flow of information • While protecting the privacy of patients. • The patient has the right to… • Request access to health info. • Request to amend their health info. • Request restrictions to information sharing • Request accountability of disclosures.

6. HIPAA rules require us to…. • Treat all things we learn about patients as confidential - We can’t tell anyone else • Provide more control to patients over their personal health information • Punish those who misuse patient information by imposing criminal & civil penalties

7. HIPAA rules say…. • You can’t talk about patients outside of the office with anyone • Clinicians should only access the medical information that is needed for their job/clinical experience. • We need patients to give permission before we can give information to others on their behalf. • Keep medical records in a secure place-both paper & electronic.

8. If you are using electronic medical records…. • You should have a unique password-don’t share with others • Do not access information on yourself, your family, your friends, staff or any other person. • You have a duty to report any breach in confidentiality to your supervising doctor. • Remember most computer systems can track all access to records. • Inappropriate access is punishable by federal and state law.

9. You may see more information on-line • Find the entire HIPAA privacy summary; sign up for alerts www.hhs.gov/ocr/privacy/index.html • See examples of privacy agreements & training materials www.insidehopkinsmedicine.org/hipaa www.shadow.med.unc.edu www.privacyrights.org www.infoscope.mcw.edu/FileLibrary/GroupInfoScopeHIPAA /MCW_HIPAA_Booklet.pdf • Georgetown guides give rules for state by state records http://hpi.georgetown.edu/privacy/records.html

10. Let’s suppose … • You saw your teacher in the waiting room….. …you are not allowed to tell anyone else

11. Let’s suppose… • You really worked a lot with one patient and got to know them well in the office… …You must not e-mail or “befriend” them on Facebook or other social networking site. This is a ‘professional’ relationship, not a social one. X X X

12. Let’s suppose … • You were very excited to see a patient’s new walking progress and you take the elevator to lunch with the nurse… …You are not allowed to talk about it in the elevator around others.

13. We welcome you … Please sign our confidentiality agreement now. • Together we can do more… ...to care for our patients & their families.

14. Thank you…. Welcome to our practice!