Anyone who works in the healthcare industry knows that they should avoid HIPAA violations at all costs. It usually leads to large fines and can sometimes involve jail time. At a minimum, employee discipline is certainly one potential consequence of violating HIPAA.

There are steps healthcare providers take to better prevent the unintentional disclosure of PHI. All of those steps stem from the same source, patient confidentiality. So how do you place better protections?

Well, the best way to start is by seeing some examples of patient confidentiality for yourself.

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Many practices have patients sign in when they enter the waiting room. Sometimes, there will be lots of blacked-out lines above where they sign from previous appointments throughout the day. Other times, a patient will sign on a whiteboard that get erased or removed shortly after signing.
Why do healthcare practices have patients sign their names on removable mediums?

Let’s say you sign in to see a psychologist. Let’s also say your coworker sees the same therapist and notices your name on the sign in sheet. That coworker could reveal to colleagues that you’re seeking help from a behavioral health professional.

In this fictitious scenario, negligence from the healthcare entity caused a breach in privacy. By blotting out the names or removing them from the list, healthcare providers can better protect their clients.

Many practices need to leave a HIPAA-compliant voicemail on patients’ phones. If the wrong person hears the voicemail, this could lead to a breach of confidentiality. Due to that risk, medical professionals usually keep their message vague. Including as little identifying information as possible on a patient voicemail decreases further decreases the risks associated with patient confidentiality.

Your front office staff likely makes and receives a lot of phone calls from patients. Some of the calls that those staff members make have to include some private information by nature. How do you protect who those staff members are calling from those that are waiting for their appointment? Privacy glass.

Privacy glass surrounding the main desk is another step that your practice could take to enhance your patients' protections.

86% of healthcare organizations use some form of electronic health record system (EHR). Based on that statistic, 24% still spend hours printing out PHI and filing it away.

Unfortunately, if these files aren’t disposed of securely, the sensitive information could fall into the hands of malicious individuals. Not to mention the risk associated with leaving sensitive documents on desks.

The solution? Shredding containers. The best solution? Switch from paper altogether.

Healthcare providers need to take caution when discussing PHI in front of visitors. For example, a doctor could accidentally disclose private information in front of a patient’s visitors. Not a big deal…unless of course the patient didn’t want the people visiting them to know those details. How do you navigate this scenario? Consent. Simply alert patients when they’re about to discuss PHI. This gives the patient a chance to excuse visitors from the room.

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