Several posts have expressed surprise/concern when the issue of confidentiality is raised. Yes, in some cases it may be a "red herring" meant to sidetrack the issue. On the other hand, what is known here as HIPPA makes a major issue of confidentiality that has many administrators running scared. If there is a finding that confidentiality has been breached, the fines are tremendous. We had been keeping worksheets that we used when we say inpatients on which we checked off topics as we covered them with a mom. It also had info like her previous bf experience, baby's gestational age, Apgars, birth and D/C weights etc. It was a way for the LCs to communicate with each other and also gave us something to look back at when a mom came in for an outpatient appointment. In spite of the fact that these were kept in a locked file in our office, we were told that the hospital could be fined something like $5000 for EACH of those forms we had! Now we can use the worksheet, but it has to go to medical records at the time the pt is discharged and will be destroyed as it is not part of the chart. (We do have a means of charting our assessments and interventions in the computer system.) Now if we want that info when a mom comes back for o.p. we have to call up the medical record. We use TLC in the office and can enter a mom/baby's info if we have a definite follow-up plan, but cannot enter every delivered breastfeeding mom for future reference. I hate bureaucracy and it's picky rules! Winnie *********************************************** To temporarily stop your subscription: set lactnet nomail To start it again: set lactnet mail (or digest) To unsubscribe: unsubscribe lactnet All commands go to [log in to unmask] The LACTNET mailing list is powered by L-Soft's renowned LISTSERV(R) list management software together with L-Soft's LSMTP(TM) mailer for lightning fast mail delivery. For more information, go to: http://www.lsoft.com/LISTSERV-powered.html