Asking someone about their COVID-19 vaccination status can be a touchy subject. While some are happy to chat about being vaccinated, others want to keep that information private. Some, including Georgia congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene, have claimed that being asked about their vaccination status is a HIPAA violation. But others have said that’s not actually true. So what’s really going on here? Read on for what you need to know. What is HIPAA, again? You’re […]
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Pandemic pressures, alongside staff fatigue and stress, are the most likely causes of a “high incidence” of sharps injuries among nurses in the past year, a report from the Royal College of Nursing has suggested. The fact that not all nurses have access to safer sharps or appropriate training and education could also be a contributing factor, said the report, which is based on responses from more than 7,500 RCN members. The report, called Blood […]
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Private companies are developing vaccine passports, and businesses across the U.S. are debating whether to mandate them. The following articles on vaccine passports have been published by Becker’s Hospital Review: Fauci: US won’t mandate vaccine passports Anthony Fauci, MD, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, told Politico‘s “Dispatch” podcast that the federal government will not mandate COVID-19 vaccine passports for businesses or events, but private companies will decide whether they adopt […]
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The COVID-19 pandemic instantly increased demand for some types of medical waste management, such as the disposal of personal protective equipment and testing supplies. Waste management companies met this challenge last year, but it required a lot of flexibility, they said. This year, health care providers have to dispose millions of needles and empty vaccine vials. But a shortage of sharps containers, the plastic buckets in which clinicians throw away old syringes and vials, is […]
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The first thing you should know about HIPAA is that it’s HIPAA, not HIPPA. There is only one P, and that P doesn’t stand for “privacy.” “People make up what that acronym stands for,” Deven McGraw, co-founder and chief regulatory officer of the medical records platform Ciitizen and former deputy director for health information privacy at the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Office for Civil Rights (OCR), told Recode. “More often than not, […]
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The increase in the need for personal protective equipment (PPE) and its use during the COVID-19 pandemic has produced a rise in medical waste as institutions dispose of gowns, gloves, masks, face shields and shoe covers that have been exposed to the virus. “There definitely is more regulated medical waste being generated, and a lot of it is derived from PPE,” said Rudy Vingris, the health care business development manager at Waste Management Sustainability Services. […]
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In any given year, vaccines are given out and needles and syringes have to be disposed of. But what about this year? How much excess medical waste is created by COVID-19 vaccinations? In short, it’s a lot. Naomi Friesz, a nurse, has been doling out shots on the frontlines since they were made available. She said Bismarck-Burleigh Public Health, alone, has given out thousands, likely tens of thousands more doses this year than any other […]
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According to a survey done in 2017, which is conducted on a large sample of Americans by Consumer Reports, about 30% of Americans did not clean out their medicine cabinets for over a year and nearly 20% have not done so in the last 3 years. Additionally, most Americans do not know how to clean their medicine cabinets correctly. Those unused and expired medicines not only add clutter to our closets but also may cause […]
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The mission of why healthcare exists is to heal and restore health, but that can be difficult to accomplish if the built environment is not designed with security in mind. A safe environment is a major contributor to healing, yet violence generated by patients and visitors is increasing at astonishing rates. Improving security and safety in healthcare begins with design. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, while under 20% of all workplace injuries happen […]
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Hospitals are the most common violators of HIPAA privacy regulations, followed by private practices, outpatient facilities, pharmacies and health plans, according to a March 3 report from the American Medical Association. HHS’ Office for Civil Rights, which is responsible for enforcing HIPAA privacy rules, regularly tracks the compliance issues most often alleged in HIPAA complaints. The five most common HIPAA compliance issues, as compiled by the HHS’ Office for Civil Rights: Impermissible uses and disclosures […]
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