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| - Why is it Difficult for Medical Professionals to Except Responsibility for Making Mistakes?
Over the past few years, there has been an attempt to seek medical care through a medical clinic in the Phoenix, Arizona area. This process began in late 2012 and ended after the doctor who was providing medical care left the practice resulting in a new doctor having been assigned to provide continued care. After one short visit, there was a decision to discontinue further care until late March of 2015 when it became necessary to seek medical care for chest pain that radiated down the left arm, swelling in the hands and feet, and difficulty breathing. At the time of the appointment, the height and weight was checked, which was 210 pounds for a 5'2" female. The first appointment led to a request for lab tests. At the time of check out the medical records were handed to the patient, which led to the observation of the weight of 167 pounds and a height of 5'3."
At the next appointment, there was another provider and a follow-up for lab tests and the scheduling of a physical and well woman exam. The third appointment was met with the cancellation of the "Well Woman Exam" due to the billing issues that would prevent the payment for one the two exams. The physical was performed by a nurse practitioner (NP) who had an EKG run that showed abnormalities. The NP dismissed the EKG as being a false positive until there was a reminder of the chest pain that radiated down the left arm. The conversation took place in the office area outside of the examination room. A request for the discussion of the findings on the EKG to continue in the examination room during the physical. After the discussion of the EKG and with a copy of the lab results that were for a cardiologist recommended for follow-up.
Several days later during a review of the four (4) page lab results, there was an error identified on pages 3 and 4 of a 1 of the 4-page report provided by the NP at the time of the scheduled physical. The problem concerned the personal information identifying the patient, i.e., name, birth date, age, address, phone number, insurance provider, and the social security number, which were not that of the person whom the lab results identified on the first and second page of the four-page report. There was a decision to call the individual identified on the third and fourth pages, as the discovery needed to be addressed not only by the person whose information was given out but also by the person receiving the information. Since it was egregious and a violation of the HIPAA laws, as well as the Privacy Act laws. An HIPAA complaint was filed on behalf of the person whose information was given to someone other than the person to whom the information belonged.
After seeing four care providers in as many visits to the medical office, there was a request for one doctor to provide all care. This new provider seemed to understand the situation the individual was in and stated that there would not be any more issues concerning the care provided. As appointments were scheduled for oncology, cardiology, and urology each office requested permission to obtain a copy of any x-ray's, lab tests, and other tests that were performed by the clinicians working on the individuals' care. While there were requests made concerning the lab test, there was no attempt on the part of the doctor ordering the follow-up consultations to provide the lab test report for obvious reasons. There was no way for the four-page document to be given to anyone as the document contained an HIPAA violation that would result in questions concerning the information that would appear incomplete or contain someone's' name, address, social security, etc. who was unrelated to the individual
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