Laurie's post about calling child protective services mentioned
talking to the dad because mom wasn't in and leaving a voice mail
message when doing a follow-up call.
With the new HIPPA regulations going into effect soon, we went
through quite a discussion of what we can and can't say to anyone
other than the mom on the phone.  I know this wasn't the primary
point of her post, but it did trigger these warnings in my mind.

(For those of you outside the US - HIPPA contains a big federal
regulation about privacy and confidentiality.of patient
information.  Actually, the primary purpose was supposed to be to
assure that one can carry their insurability from one company to
another.  The privacy portion seems to have been a small part that
has grown into a major bureaurocracy!  There are strict guidelines
about what information can be shared, when, and with whom and
threatens with major fines and even imprisonment for violating
them.  Health care facilities are scrambling to be sure all their
"ducks are in line" before this becomes enforcable next month.)

We were originally told that if we were returning a mom's call and
we either reached someone else or an answering machine that we could
leave NO information about who we are or why we were calling.  Now
that has been sofetened and we can say we are calling
from------------- Hosiptal and are returning her call but we can't
indicate what we do at the hospital or any specifics about why we
want to talk with her.  This is a two-edged sword.  We encourage
moms to rest at home and have someone "filter" their phone calls,
and then we can't tell that person why we're calling the mom!  We
are workiing on a release form the mom can sign before she goes home
to give us a little more leeway in doing the follow-up calls.  In
addition, we encourage moms who call us to indicate in their message
if we can speak to whoever answers about the reason for our call.

Confidentiality is certainly an important, legitimate issue, but
this seems to have gotten out of hand.  The point is, you may need
to reevaluate how you handle such calls to be sure you are in
compliance and not setting yourselves up for big trouble if someone
says you haven't "followed the rules".

In the case of suspected abuse or neglect (or other cases where
reporting is required by law) only the minimul amount of info
necessary can be released without the person's consent and such
release and the reasons have to be carefully documented.

Winnie

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