Q: A local college psychology class would like to observe residents in our dementia unit. We would not give any names; the students just want to observe. Can we do this, or must we have authorization from the residents?
HIPAA Weekly Advisor, April 16, 2007
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A: This is a grey area. The privacy rule allows you to use or disclose PHI without authorization for healthcare operations. The definition of healthcare operations includes "conducting training programs in which students, trainees, or practitioners in areas of healthcare learn under supervision to practice or improve their skills as healthcare providers" and "training of non-healthcare professionals."
However, it's difficult to make a clear case that college-level psychology students are training to be healthcare professionals or that this is part of their training as non-healthcare professionals. Because these are dementia patients, they probably cannot give you authorization for the students to observe them, and you would need to get authorization from their family members. Although you would not give the students the patients' names, HIPAA considers a full-face photograph to be a patient identifier. These students might recognize some of the patients.
I recommend not allowing this observation. The contribution to the education of the students is minimal and this could be an invasion of privacy for a vulnerable group of patients.
Editor's note: Mary Brandt, president of Bellaire, TX-based Brandt & Associates, LLC, answered this question. This is not legal advice. Consult your attorney for legal matters.
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