Cellphone use in Medical Practice Areas

With HIPAA compliance enforcement on the rise, it’s no wonder medical practices are wondering what they can do to help protect the privacy and confidentiality of their patients. The AMA recently reported on policies to prevent not only cellphone use, but also cellphone photos, in the medical practice area:

First physicians had to hang signs to remind patients not to talk or text on their cellphones so they would not disturb others. Now that cellphone capabilities have expanded, physicians have a choice: Do they extend that warning to taking pictures with a smartphone?

Though the ban on telephone conversations was motivated by an attempt to keep down the annoyance factor, the implications of snapping pictures inside a practice can go beyond other patients getting a little irritated. If picture-taking is left unfettered, patients could feel violated and sense that a practice doesn’t take patient privacy seriously. On the other hand, if patients want to break out the smartphone for a few shots, is a practice just picking a fight by instituting a no-pictures policy? How a practice is held accountable when one patient violates another patient’s privacy can be tricky because, technically, patients cannot violate the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act. Ultimately, practices are duty-bound to do all they can to create an environment that respects patients and their privacy, experts say. If a patient’s waiting-room picture that gets posted on Facebook happens to include other patients, HIPAA violation or not, those patients might not be too happy.

A proper HIPAA policy might ban patients from taking pictures of patients and from distributing such pictures to others.

The articles notes that there is a danger that patients will snap photos of files too. HIPAA privacy and security concerns are at the forefront in an area of increasing loss of privacy and cyber-security awareness. HIPAA regulatory compliance includes policies, procedures, forms, and employee training on HIPAA compliance.

A “cell phone free zone” is simply one small component of the larger picture. For HIPAA regulatory compliance, contact a HIPAA attorney familiar with all the laws and regulations who can customize a HIPAA package for your medical practice or other healthcare activity.