HIPAA Regulations and Blogging

I'm not gonna lie: HIPAA regulations scare the bejeezus out of me.  And I know I'm not alone:  when I tried to get my medical records from my old hospital, the clerk in charge refused to give me basic information that was allowed, simply because he didn't fully understand the rules and didn't want to err on the side of wrong.  (Side note:  once I did convince him that it was perfectly legal to share that specific information over the phone, he offered way more information than was legal, which is kinda really shady).  


So I want to put it out there when I'm blogging: I'd rather be safe than sorry.  As much as I'd like to post about specific cases that I've shadowed,  I absolutely can't.  HIPPA regulations can be somewhat convoluted in regards to blogging, but that's the easiest rule of thumb to follow.  


The following is quoted from the Social Medic on "The Healthcare Blogger Code of Ethics and HIPAA":

"The code has five essential points:

• Perspective – that your readers understand your professional perspective. While we usually argue that this type of classification is usually unnecessary to the public it’s important to identify whether you are you an EMT-Basic, EMT-Intermediate, EMT-Paramedic, Registered Nurse or Medical Doctor for your readers who do understand the differences to know your professional perspective
• Confidentiality – Bloggers must understand and maintain the importance of confidentiality when blogging about patients. All blogging about patients must be done so that their identity cannot be inferred
• Disclosure – Bloggers must disclose any commercial ties that may exist between a company and themselves. You can read more about disclosures here
• Reliability – It is important to cite sources of information accurately and correctly. Additionally it is important to correct inaccuracies where they are discovered
• Courtesy – Attack the idea, not the person. This is a simple directive to maintain a professional demeanor and practice good netiquette. You can read more about the do’s and don’ts of online behaviour here"

In addition, any information that could be used as patient identifiers, such as location of city or hospital, time of incidents, patient descriptions, etc, have the potential to reveal identities, and must therefore be completely avoided.