Dispatchers accused of violating HIPAA when dispatching EMS calls

HIPAA has become a hot button topic for many in public safety. The number of people in EMS who don’t actually understand what HIPPA does and does not cover has made this topic worse. Which has caused dispatchers to be in the crosshairs of the so-called HIPPA Police.

Hipaa

HIPAA Police hitting Dispatchers now!

A typical EMS dispatch report will include the location of the call and the nature of the call. For example “Whateverville EMS you are needed at 42 Main street for a 57 year old male having a possible heart attack.” This information goes over a radio channel for anyone with a scanner to hear.

According to some EMS supervisors this is creating the HIPPA violations.

“They may not be naming the victim, but in a small town everyone knows who the patient is. They give the address, the gender and sometimes the age. It does not take long to figure out who the patient is with that information. Then dispatchers give the medical issue. So in effect they are disclosing the protected health information that HIPPA demands be kept private.”

In response the Association of Dispatch Specialists is setting out new guidelines for dispatching medical calls.

“Dispatchers will only radio to EMS units they have a call needing a response. The dispatcher will give a general direction for the ambulance to head in, like near the intersection of Main and 3rd streets. The EMTs or Paramedics will then call into dispatch via cell phone to find out the exact address and nature of the call.”

The use of ambulance mounted computers or MDCs to convey the information was suggested but eventually rejected.

“Not every service has MDCs mounted in their rigs. Also we found that MDC communications are subject to open records requests. So by following open records law our dispatch centers could be violating HIPAA. As such our new policy will call for the end of using MDCs to communicate private/privileged medical information with dispatch.”

We have been assured that this new guideline will not call for the removal of MDCs. EMTs can still us the mapping and patient record keeping software on their laptops. The policy only covers communicating HIPAA protected information between the rig and dispatch centers.

“We know this might seem cumbersome for some EMS systems. But we are switching to this new guideline to ensure patients are protected and that EMS providers are not liable for a civil lawsuit.”

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The staff at the CallTheCops are all people who now or at one time did work as police, firefighters, in EMS and even dispatch.