HHS – April 2002
PATIENT:  My doctor needs to discuss my treatment with other doctors and nurses.  But the Privacy Rule prohibits doctors and nurses from discussing private health information if there is a possibility that someone will overhear.  What if my doctor needs to discuss my condition with a nurse at a busy nursing station, or with me over the phone from someplace other than a private office?  The privacy rule prevents these discussions.
The Privacy Rule is not intended to prohibit providers from talking to each other and to their patients.
* HHS has proposed new regulatory language to clarify this issue.
FALSE !
FALSE!     The Privacy Rule is not intended to prohibit providers from talking to each other and to their patients.

Provisions of the rule exempting treatment disclosures from the minimum necessary standard are intended to ensure that providers’ primary consideration is the appropriate treatment of their patients.  We also understand that overheard communications are unavoidable.   We would consider the following and other similar kinds of conversations to be permissible, if reasonable precautions are taken to minimize the chance of inadvertent disclosures to others who may be nearby (such as using lowered voices):

*Health care staff may orally coordinate services at hospital nursing stations.
*Nurses or other health care professionals may discuss a patient’s condition over the phone with the patient, a provider, or a family member.
*A health care professional may discuss lab test results with a patient or other provider in a joint treatment area or a semi privacy hospital room.

In March, the Secretary proposed new regulatory language to reinforce and clarify that these and similar inadvertent disclosures are permissible so long as reasonable precautions, taking into account the situation an the nature of the covered entity,  are taken.