Unattended Laptop Exposed Resident PHI at Nurses’ Station
Penalty
Summary
The deficiency involved a failure to keep a resident’s protected health information (PHI) private and confidential when an unattended medication cart laptop was left open and visible in a common area. The resident involved had multiple medical diagnoses including respiratory failure, heart disease, atrial fibrillation, pulmonary hypertension, peripheral venous insufficiency, a history of falling, and transient ischemic attacks, and was cognitively intact, used a wheelchair, and required maximal to dependent assistance with ADLs per a recent MDS assessment. During observation at the second-floor nurses’ station, surveyors noted the laptop on the medication cart was left open to the landing page for this resident, displaying PHI such as the resident’s photo, name, gender, room number, date of birth, code status, allergies, and most recent vital signs, and the cart and laptop were unattended, making the information viewable to anyone passing by. An LPN confirmed that the laptop was unattended and that PHI for the resident was visible, and review of the facility’s PHI policy showed that facility personnel were responsible for preventing unauthorized disclosure of PHI; this issue was identified as an incidental finding during a complaint investigation.
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