A local hospital’s mobile mammogram bus visits the plant every year. The nurse makes a schedule of when each person is supposed to go get their test done. She makes up a little spreadsheet, but gets me to print it out at 18 x 24 on my plotter. It gets posted on a stand in the main entrance corridor between her office and HR.
When we walked by it the other day on our way for one of our walks on break, Donna commented that maybe that shouldn’t be there because maybe the participants didn’t want everyone else to see it. I quipped something about HIPPA and she said, “Well my name isn’t on there, so I’m not going to worry about it.”
Later that morning as I was walking by the sign, a woman who was on the list, wondered aloud, like me, if maybe that didn’t violate HIPPA (feel free to try and figure that out, here is a link to the 101 page PDF.) She must have said something to Human Resources because the next time I passed that way, the schedule was gone.
That afternoon as I sat in my cube working, I heard that same woman passing by and she must have came upon a friend going in the opposite direction because she announced to her (loud enough to be heard over a 100′ radius), “I can’t talk now, I’m off to get my mammogram!”
So much for taking down the schedule so people wouldn’t know…
Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/08: 224
Several years ago, I had to take my mom (who doesn’t drive) for her test. I made a mistake and left my house when I was supposed to pick her up, which put us 30 minutes behind.
I told her to call ahead and explain that we were late and see if they could “squeeze her in”.
(Somehow, women never laugh at that line)
I don’t know what the association is but when I hear the “word” HIPPA I think of the Huey Lewis song Hip To Be Square which is how the title of the post came about. I originally going to title it HIPPA to be Squeezed, but figured my editor/wife would object…