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Focus on maintaining strong customer service when handling patient complaints

HIPAA Weekly Advisor, February 28, 2003

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Responding to complaints of privacy breaches quickly and compassionately is the first step to satisfying the patient.

"A lot of times, people just want to hear that somebody is acknowledging their complaints," says Becky Buegel, RHIA, privacy officer and director of health information management (HIM) at Casa Grande (AZ) Regional Medical Center. "The customer service aspect is very important. When we have complaints, I get in touch with the patients right away, try to calm them down, and let them know that I'm going to look into it."

In some cases, a patient may be misinformed about HIPAA, and no privacy breach has actually occurred, says Buegel. "Even if the complaint was based on the patient's perception, there are no witnesses, or I'm not sure there's been any kind of privacy breach, I still try to deal with the patient and make sure they feel the issue was resolved properly," she says. "An explanation will often satisfy most patients. Our intent is to educate."

The media could be behind some patients' misperceptions, says Buegel. "A lot of the newspaper stories written right now are grossly inaccurate. Some of it is hysteria tactics, especially from the people in Congress who are trying to make a name for themselves."

The vast majority of the privacy regulations put into law what health care professionals-especially HIM professionals-have been doing all along, she says. "We have always wanted patient authorization before releasing certain information, and we have always guarded patients' privacy . . . We are currently carrying out business without patient consent, and HHS just changed the rule to what we're currently doing when they eliminated the requirement."

A big part of handling patient complaints is simply educating the patients, says Buegel. "A patient might say, 'My roommate overheard what the doctor told me.' But as long as the doctor took the appropriate steps, like drawing the curtain, it's not considered a breach."

Go to http://www.himinfo.com/news/feature.cfm?content_id=25716 to read more.

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