Credentialing & Privileging

Tip of the week: If your MSSD mistakenly receives patient information, contact the sender

Credentialing Resource Center Connection, February 18, 2010

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Although it’s easy to ignore a patient’s file sitting on a colleague’s desk, it’s more difficult to overlook patient information mistakenly sent directly to you. For example, what should MSPs do if they query another hospital about an applicant’s current competency and, in response, mistakenly receive procedure lists, including confidential patient information? Is that a HIPAA violation? Should the MSPs report the other hospital to law enforcement?

It is best practice for the MSP to contact the entity that mistakenly sent the information and ask the sender what to do with the information, says Michael Roach, Esq., partner at Meade & Roach, LLP, in Chicago.

“Contact the person who sent it and then ask what he or she would like you to do, and normally they’re going to say if it was a fax, shred it, if it was an e-mail, delete it. If it was something received in the mail, they might say, ‘Return it to me,’ ” Roach says.

This week’s tip is from Credentialing and Peer Review Legal Advisor, March 2010, archived online at www.HCPro.com.



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