Medical Secrets
By: George Feigley,
Cofounder
The feds have laws about just about everything. One that's of
particular importance to medical patients is called "HIPPA"
for short. It's at 42 USC 300gg et seq. and 29 USC 1181 et seq.
This act, which is mainly concerned with health insurance
portability, has other essential provisions. One section of great
importance mandates that ALL medical information MUST be kept
confidential, even secret. Only a few medical persons with genuine
medical needs to know are permitted to have access to any patient's
medical information. The law applies to all institutions even
prisons.
Federal law requires that all prisoners' medical information and records MUST be kept confidential. So, I introduce a nurse, Vicki Stanishefski, (license number RN 189275L Should you want to complain about her or any other nurse or any other licensed medical person you may do so at the Pennsylvania State Bureau of Professional and Occupational Affairs, www.licensepa.state.pa.us. Nurse Stanishefski is a so-called "Health Care Administrator" or "CHCA" (I don't know what the first "c" is intended to represent, maybe "correctional;" the Department of Imprisonment likes pompously grandiose titles for it's flunkies). She's supposed to run the medical department at the Frackville state prison in East-Central Pennsylvania. You'd think that the medical boss would be familiar with the laws which govern her occupation. Ms Stanishefski may, however, be ignorant of the HIPPA, or maybe she just doesn't care about the law. Lots of staff at the Frackville prison routinely violate the law. They fancy they're above the law. Recently a prisoner asked for reasonable accommodation for a disability pursuant to another federal law, the Americans with Disabilities Act, 42 USC 1320d, et seq. Ms Stanishefski didn't think the old prisoner deserved to have his disability accommodated. He'd had the temerity to shun pointless yearly check-ups. To emphasize her contempt for the prisoner and his request, "CHCA" Stanishefski published copies of the prisoner's medical information to half a dozen prison functionaries. None of them was part of the medical department. None of them had any medical need to know. Federal law be damned! the nurse sent confidential medical secrets to the prison superintendent and his two deputies. She also sent copies to a captain named Kneal in the security department, to a so-called unit manager and even to an administrative assistant of no particular import. Needless to say, the prisoner was miffed. He griped to Rober Shannon, the prison superintendent. Frackville is by far the worst managed prison in Pennsylvania. Robert Shannon is supposed to manage it. Bobby Shannon ignored the complaints about medical privacy. He does that a lot. That way he can avoid correcting any of the many, many problems in the prison and let the staff get away with its abuses. Mister Shannon did, however, think that it was just fine and dandy that a serious physical disability wasn't going to be accommodated. Federal law be damned! A 67 year-old man's disabilities are great to exploit, not to accommodate. Maybe the prisoner will suffer more. Sadism is the character of the Frackville prison staff. The prisoner formally complained to the Pennsylvania Bureau of Professional Affairs and will, as soon as possible, sue Stanishefski and Shannon. But the point is, the medical staff in some of the worst Pennsylvania prisons routinely violate the confidentiality of prisoners' medical information. They also violate other state and federal laws. As always, we urge you to complain and sue. Employees of the Pennsylvania Department of Imprisonment won't do what's right or good unless they're forced to. They are not good people.
"Nature is indifferent to You are welcome to use or re-publish
any of our material.
|