Mother-In-Law overstepping her boundaries...

[pickles521]

<SNIP!> Now if she were looking up financial information than i would have an issue because my finances are MY business. My ex MIL is a nurse in another state and we talk a lot about medical stuff.

Interesting that you would have a problem if it was financial information. Ever heard of Medical Identity Theft? I'm not suggesting in any way that that is what's going on here, but Medical Identity Theft is a severe and growing problem, that often starts with "oh - she was just looking at _____" the immunizations, the prescription, the medical card, the EOB... pick one.

Family members are common culprits and among the most difficult to catch and prosecute because they get cut so much slack "but they're family!!"

Again - I'm NOT saying that's happening here, there's not enough information to determine that - but don't assume because they are family or because they are just innocently looking over your shoulder, or covertly looking at something that doesn't ring any bells for you that its truly innocent.

I'm with the other Informatics Professionals here - her actions are highly illegal and easily tracked. With HIPAA and HITECH, she will get noticed eventually, especially if she's looking up more than just one child.

 

[clarabelle]

In GA they have an immunization registry called GRITS
Where anyone that works at a business (doctors office, hospital and so forth ) registered with grits can go online and access your immunization record. That is all you would be able to see -no other medical records
I imagine other states have similar systems?

 

[need2cruise]

If this is a immunization record that is kept on an online immunization database, then that is all that would have been able to be seen. If it's like my state, you would have had to sign a paper agreeing to have this information posted and the paper states that the information is available to various people in the school and healthcare fields. I believe most states have created a system like this to help push keeping immunizations up to date. You may not remember signing a paper of such, but it is usually with all the paperwork most parents are signing as they enroll (yes, even preschool kids). I chose NOT to sign this and have my child listed in the immunization database. I am quite capable of keeping up with the immunizations on my own without a school verifying it every year through a system. I may have if I knew it would ONLY be accessed by my health care provider, but on the form it has a list of all types of people beyond a doctor who can have access. So you might want to double check with your childs school or family doctor to see if you signed something like this before getting all in a huff over it.

 

[Swan4Me]

Clearly I am in the minority, but I couldn't care less if my MIL looked up any or all of my kids immunization records. If the secretary of my kids school can see them, so can my MIL. I can't for the life of me see why this is a big deal.

.

I find the uproar over this kinda weird-like women WANT to find something to hate their MIL about/

I get Nurses to break HIppa rules all the time-I work part time for a Party Store and we do Balloon Bouquets to the Hospital-with all the crazy names kids get now sometimes you can NOT tell if it is a boy or a girl-i can get a nurse to tell me the sex of the kid in the hospital.

 

[punkin]

I can see that OP is upset (though the reason baffles me really) but other than talking to the MIL (which has already been done) everything else seems like extreme overkill to me.

 

[HoneyPooh]

Anyone in our office who did this would be fired. We have access to all kinds of records and if we were found to be looking at records that were not for our patient that would be the end of it for us. It is a VERY big deal in the medical community.

I have passwords to several hospitals and their records. If I was caught looking up a relative who was not a patient of OURS I would be fired immediately. If MIL has access to any other records systems I would go out on a limb and say she has looked at them. Since she looked at your childs records with no need I'm betting she has looked at other records she has no need to see.

 

[tlbwriter]

I'm not sure if I would report her...

but if she said it weren't a big deal, I would ask her what her boss or the state licensing board would say? If she said they wouldn't care....I'd be tempted to say that I would double check for her.

Like.

While I don't favor reporting it--I would favor making sure she understands how inappropriate it was. And if she fails to see that, and DH fails to see that.....I'm not sure what I would do, but I would be quite angry.

This too. I understand the OP doesn't want her MIL to lose her job because the fallout will affect her. But that's the only thing that would stop me from doing so.

How would you go about alerting your DS"s dr? somehow I think you''d have to mention the breech of your MIL, wouldn't you?

You could say "I was told that my child's medical records are accessible to anyone who works in a health care setting. Is this true, and if so, is there a way I can opt out of that access?"

I would be VERY upset! Not only because it's illegal, but also because I would consider it a huge insult to me as a mother! Was she checking up on you to see if you had your son's immunizations up to date because she thought you might have missed one? How rude and nosey. And NONE of her business!!

I agree. I don't care who knows my child's immunization history, but if you want that information, ASK ME. Sneaking around looking up records is just WRONG.

I get Nurses to break HIppa rules all the time-I work for a Party Store and we do Balloon Bouquets to the Hospital-with all the crazy names kids get now sometimes you can NOT tell if it is a boy or a girl-i can get a nurse to tell me the sex of the kid in the hospital.

I'm not sure this is a HIPAA violation. Gender may not be the type of information that's protected. Anyone know? Of course, if this is a violation, the fact that those nurses are stupid enough to do it doesn't make it right. (And yes, breaking a law and risking your job AND license just so someone can get the "right" color of balloons is stupid!)

 

[ccgirl]

Like.



This too. I understand the OP doesn't want her MIL to lose her job because the fallout will affect her. But that's the only thing that would stop me from doing so.



You could say "I was told that my child's medical records are accessible to anyone who works in a health care setting. Is this true, and if so, is there a way I can opt out of that access?"



I agree. I don't care who knows my child's immunization history, but if you want that information, ASK ME. Sneaking around looking up records is just WRONG.



I'm not sure this is a HIPAA violation. Gender may not be the type of information that's protected. Anyone know? Of course, if this is a violation, the fact that those nurses are stupid enough to do it doesn't make it right. (And yes, breaking a law and risking your job AND license just so someone can get the "right" color of balloons is stupid!)

Giving the gender of one of your patients for the purpose of balloons is not a HIPAA violation. If you gave our, or looked at, any medicalinformation without the authorization/need that is a violation.

Most hospitals with IT departments run audit reports. Those reports are written so it looks at the user's name and if they access a record with the same name, last name, or addres it automatically gets put on a report. Also, anyone that looks at the record of another hospital employee gets puts on the audit report. The auditor will then contact the dept. manager and verify the need existed. If no need existed, they are fired on the spot.

 

[Carnie]

She's looking because she doesn't trust YOU as a parent to make sure he has all his shots.

That's so sweet.

 

[jmpurdy]

There is a boundary issue. Clearly, the boundary was not respected within the son's family. The reason is almost not important. Son needs to speak up clearly and loudly. DO NOT DO IT AGAIN or she will be reported. She either thinks she didn't do anything wrong or she was testing the waters looking for a reaction.

 

[Wishing on a star]

Overkill???????
Somebody is engaging in illegal activity, in order to violate one in the most personal way.... and that is okay???? And, to see a problem with this is 'overkill'....

Wow....

Another one that I think was probably posted by one of 'those' MIL's.

 

[OceanAnnie]

She's looking because she doesn't trust YOU as a parent to make sure he has all his shots.

That's so sweet.

Ding. Ding. Ding.

That seems to be the gist of it. And she made an announcement to let you know she doesn't trust you, veiled in a comment to your young son. This woman is skilled.

 

[luvmy3]

Your lucky that she cares so much. Did she find any that you missed?

Clearly I am in the minority, but I couldn't care less if my MIL looked up any or all of my kids immunization records. If the secretary of my kids school can see them, so can my MIL. I can't for the life of me see why this is a big deal.

I find the uproar over this kinda weird-like women WANT to find something to hate their MIL about/

I think its about a lack of respect for the OPs and her dh's privacy when it comes to their child. I don't care if its a grandchild, if there is something you want to know about your grabdchild, you don't go sneaking into medical records to find it, you ask the parents. If you really cared, thats what you would do, otherwise you are being a busybody with "control" issues.
I don't think the OP has to look for something to dislike her MIL about, I'm pretty sure her doing this qualifies. Whether the OP wants to take it further and report her is up to her, what she did was illegal, but on a more personal level for the OP, it was disrespectful and sneaky.

 

[Wishing on a star]

"She will get caught"

I would not count on it...
Not unless somebody raises a question...

Sure, these things are tracked... but unless one is audited... with the hundreds and thousands of records accessed by medical offices every day... I really don't see how this would ever come to light.

 

[Pigeon]

If I was positive she'd actually done this, I'd report her in a heartbeat. You've already confronted her and she doesn't see that what she did was illegal and unethical, so you gave her a chance and she blew it.

Normally, I'd let my husband deal with his wacky relatives, but since he won't, I would. This is a total violation of your family's privacy and none of her business. If she's doing this to you, who knows what else she's looking up that's none of her business. We have privacy laws for a reason.

 

[OceanAnnie]

"She will get caught"

I would not count on it...
Not unless somebody raises a question...

Sure, these things are tracked... but unless one is audited... with the hundreds and thousands of records accessed by medical offices every day... I really don't see how this would ever come to light.

That is a very good point.

 

[Lynne M]

Some thoughts from someone who works in healthcare IT.....

1) What she did was almost certainly tracked. When the HIPAA law came into being, software vendors had to spend a boatload of money to add functionality to log any access to PHI (protected health information). This was required under the law.

2) If you report her, she will almost certainly be fired, as the institution she works for would be liable for any data security breaches. Health care institutions take HIPAA very, very seriously.

3) It would be a kindness to explain to her that what she did was illegal, and if her employer knew, she would lose her job. It's not just a matter of violating a family member's privacy. I'm sure she's thinking 'what does it matter, looking at my grandson's medical records, mom and dad are just being silly'. That may have been the case a few years ago, but nowadays, it's a big, hairy deal.

 

[Sadie22]

"She will get caught"

I would not count on it...
Not unless somebody raises a question...

Sure, these things are tracked... but unless one is audited... with the hundreds and thousands of records accessed by medical offices every day... I really don't see how this would ever come to light.

With the advent of the new electronic health record laws, the entities are required to monitor and deal with unauthorized access to private health records. In other words, frequent audits are already the norm in many agencies. Not all agencies are yet compliant as they were given a few years to upgrade technology.

OP's MIL broke federal law. As Lynne M said, it woudl be a kindness to explain this to her, if it is not already too late.

 

[luvsJack]

Clearly I am in the minority, but I couldn't care less if my MIL looked up any or all of my kids immunization records. If the secretary of my kids school can see them, so can my MIL. I can't for the life of me see why this is a big deal.

Now, if she were looking up personal items (which do not include vaccines for me), then I could see being upset, but even then, if I had a health problem, my MIL would know about it anyway, as either I or my husband would tell her. And it's not like we're best friends or anything, heck, I rarely see my MIL cause she lives in another state. But she's family regardless, so if something were wrong, I'd want all the support we could get.

But vaccines? The whole world could see them for all I care.

I agree with you. Its just not a big deal.

I know all about the laws--we have the same thing in education. But, just like I wouldn't really care if my MIL came here and looked at all my educational records, I wouldn't care if she looked up dd's vaccines.

 

[tlbwriter]

I know all about the laws--we have the same thing in education. But, just like I wouldn't really care if my MIL came here and looked at all my educational records, I wouldn't care if she looked up dd's vaccines.

And you wouldn't wonder why she didn't simply ask you, instead of breaking the law and checking herself?