What is PHI?
Personal Health Information (PHI as we commonly call it) is any information, in any form, about a patient or client. It is also any information that could identify them. This information doesn’t need to be clinical and could be contextual information like referencing a car accident. Although ‘car accident’ is not necessarily clinical it could identify a person.
PHI is health information in any form, including physical records, electronic records, photos or spoken information. PHI therefore includes health records, health histories, lab test results and medical bills.
PHI can include:
- Patient’s name
- Medical record number
- Address
- Date of birth
- Health information
- Diagnosis
- Medical history
- Contextual information
Remember we live in a community and invariably our neighbours, friends and family are also our patients and clients. Non-clinical information can sometimes identify a person and result in the breach of a person’s privacy.
Do not discuss your patients and clients, or share any information about them outside of work. It is against the law to disclose personal health information.
Snooping
Snooping is when you access a person’s record (in any form) that you are not actively caring for and where you do not need to know that information to do your job. Snooping is a violation of privacy law.
For example,
If you look up a friend’s address in Meditech, that’s snooping.
If you check your grandmother’s COVID lab result, that’s snooping.
Asking your colleague how you neighbour is doing, is snooping.
You must only access information, in any form and acquired by any means that is required to do your job.
What if my mother asked me to look at her record? Unfortunately, you can not look at her record. Ask your mother to contact her health care provider ideally or in extenuating circumstances follow the procedure through the Health Records department.
Do you have a privacy or snooping questions for IT – send it to help.desk@tbh.net and we will publish your questions and answers in early November.