May 2, 2003

FYI poster addresses patient confidentiality

The next in a series of FYI posters is being distributed throughout the hospital this week and focuses on the important subject of patient confidentiality. The posters are meant to help MGHers prepare for the upcoming survey by the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations (JCAHO).

The posters are a way of communicating to MGHers that patient confidentiality is not only a responsibility of all employees and staff, but now it is the law under the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), a comprehensive
federal law that gives patients the right to restrict certain uses of their medical
information and provides more privacy protection.

Although MGHers have always made patient confidentiality a top priority,
the new law protects patient information in all forms — written documents,
conversations, computer information and any other electronic forms such as faxes,
e-mails or pager messages.

In addition to the posters, an FYI paper also will be distributed in coming weeks, hich will offer guidelines to help employees keep patient information safe.

For more information about the FYI campaign, call Amy Moquin at
(617) 724-2753. For more information about patient confidentiality, call Health Information Management at (617) 726-2465.