Hospital didn't tell police missing man was already found
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SALEM, Ore. -- Police were searching for a missing man for two days until they realized Thomas Dill wasn’t missing at all. He had been in the hospital for a week and a half following a car crash.
Staffers at Salem Hospital failed to inform police of this crucial piece of information because of a federal privacy law. HIPAA, or Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, limits what information medical personnel can release to the public and police.
But in this case, police think the hospital took it too far when a staffer told officers Dill wasn’t there.
When police began investigating the case, there were some strange signs. His apartment was unlocked. Dill’s white sports car was in the parking lot with the window down.
Police knew the retired steel worker had diabetes, so they issued a news bulletin in hopes someone knew his whereabouts.
“Mr. Dill had simply vanished in our opinion,” Lt. Steve Birr said.
He had been at the Salem Hospital all along.
Police did receive two anonymous phone calls, which Birr believes were hospital staff.
“They were concerned. They didn’t want to violate HIPAA, but they didn’t want us to be looking for someone who had been found.”
The privacy law says hospitals can release information to police when they are “identifying or locating a suspect, fugitive, material witness or missing person.”
When reached for comment, a hospital spokesman said the hospital was looking into the situation.
“Patient privacy and safety is our No. 1 concern,” hospital spokesman Mark Glyzewski said. “We also want to ensure that we’re doing the right thing legally.”
When HIPAA first came out hospitals completely over reacted. I recall one patient calling from the hospital to report an assault by another patient. What a pain that turned into. They wouldn't say where the victim was, where the assault happened or who the suspect was. One would think, after all these years it has been in place, that staff would have it down by now. Sheesh!
the hospital staff did nothing wrong. Â The police need to show up at the hospital, Â not just call. Â You don't know who you are talking to on the phone. Â remember the incident in England when the hospital worker told someone that the princess was in the hospital. Â Those radio Dj's identified themselves as someone else and she was trying to be helpful. Â The police are to blame for this for not following proper protocol not the hospital staff.
@gecko I'm not sure the 2 cases can be compared, though.  I assume you're referring to the incident last year when  the Australian DJ's called Kate Middleton's nurses, pretending to be the queen?  The nurse released medical information and status regarding Kate's pregnancy, which is a clear & definite HIPAA violation.  However, identifying that a missing person is, in fact, not missing is not a violation. Â
This is what happens when laws are made from a liberal agenda! The hospital was only following the laws of the land! If you must place blame, blame the politicians after all they made the laws!
@Freedom1267That's funny that you somehow assume it's a liberal agenda when it was sponsored by Rep. Bill Archer [R-TX7] and primarily voted in by republicans. So we blame the republicans right?Â
@Freedom1267Â ~The privacy law says hospitals can release information to police when they are âidentifying or locating a suspect, fugitive, material witness or missing person.â~
Sounds more like a lack of training at the hospital as to what the law actually states. Â My questions would be about the patient. Â Has he been unconscious this entire time? Â Did he not have any emergency contact information? Â How did they determine who he was and how did he get to the hospital?
any way you count the pieces,,, this is carrying the don't tell business too darn far.. the authorities are looking for someone, for a reason of the person's safety, and the hospital won't tell them yes or no he's not here >>>Â Â he was not wanted or anything,, they were trying to find out ifd the man was O.K. ....help like this,, yeah.
I took the hospital a week to figure out he was there..
Only the billing department knows for sure..
Ok maybe not even the billing dept..
âPatient privacy and safety is our No. 1 concern,â hospital spokesman Mark Glyzewski said. âWe also want to ensure that weâre doing the right thing legally.â
A healthworker can easily get fired for releasing patient information. These workers are being cautious, are you going to blame them for covering their own asses? Yes the hospital is supposed to divulge information in missing person's cases but they're nurses and doctors- not lawyers. They were aware they phoned in. Give these hard working people a break. Christ.Â
Ohhh Hipaa again.. But if you owe the hospital money they don't give a rats behind about Hipaa, they want the money... Which is folks ?
@dougrpdx Pay your bills like an adult and stop whining.
ok, the law clearly states that in a missing person case, they may release information to police. Â I would like the reporter to state why the hospital said the guy was not there. If, as one dim witted commentator suggests, the hospital staff needs to verify who they are speaking to, then that would have been the answer âsir we must verify your identity to release that informationâ. Â The reality is that the cops were almost certainly at the scene of the accident when the guy was injured, why did they not know he was transported in the first place? Â At any rate the hospital is supposed to divulge the information in missing persons cases, and they and the cops should be able to figure out how to exchange information in these cases...
@CallinEmLikeISeeEmâPatient privacy and safety is our No. 1 concern,â hospital spokesman Mark Glyzewski said. âWe also want to ensure that weâre doing the right thing legally.â
A healthworker can easily get fired for releasing patient information. These workers are being cautious, are you going to blame them for covering their own asses? Yes the hospital is supposed to divulge information in missing person's cases but they're nurses and doctors- not lawyers. They were aware they phoned in. Give these hard working people a break. Christ.Â
The hospital staff did nothing wrong. These laws are to protect us. What if an employer called a hopsital asking if you had visited or an abusive spouse posing as a police officer over the phone? These laws allow no wiggle room and for good reason.Â
Send the bill for the search to the hospital.
@KATUNews that is weird but at the same time I don't want police being able to know everything
HIPAA stikes again! Oh, how wonderful secrecy is! I'm surprised some people ever get located! Terrorists have more public information available than ill people in a hospital. Once you end up in any hospital, good luck to letting your relatives or concerned people ever know you are there! Seems like overkill on the secrecy aspect!
@jpk You can't have privacy go both ways. Relaxing privacy opens the door for your employer, insurer etc to use your medical/dental/etc records against you. Heck, even your Safeway card could wind up being used against you if you decided to buy a Ding Dong and golly gee watch your medical insurance skyrocket because they think it's unhealthy.
@axpman JPK wants the government and police to have access to every citizen's private information. Just ask him about gun registration, fingerprinting, rectal exams, and microchip implantation.
@Lips It's my superhero disguise. I used to shave it into a bolt of lightning, but The Flash sued me in small claims court.
@Harry Merkin @axpman Hey Harry, that's quite the patch you have.
And with everyone blabbing all over the world on Facebook and other social media, do you reallly think there is still privacy out there? Anything anyone ever does is available. Just run yourself on Google and check it out!
Salem Hospital.
In defense of the hospital, I cite precedence in the case of Finders vs Keepers.
Wow! This story sounds like a story in the making. Police cannot find person in hospital after car wreck. Where is the ambulance service in this story?
@Bert You'd also think that his name would have shown up on a police report somewhere (because of the accident).
@UtterReality @Bert Yes, but it may take days for the report to get entered into the digital database.
So many laws that conflict with other laws. Government is so screwed up.
The employee or employees at the hospital did nothing wrong. Â In today's world, there are so many rules no one can keep up with them. Â So, the employees take the safest course of action in order to keep from losing their jobs or getting sued. Â Either way they get blamed.
Yup! Sometimes too many laws, overlapping each other and totally fogetting about the person they are intended to protect! Â
Great. A pretense for the chiselling away at the privacy rights that HIPAA now affords. Everything is done is increments. Hitler didn't round up all the Jews overnight. If you combine an extreme case of this type event with what the gun grabbers want, ie. having all doctors report gun owners, and using their medical charts against prospective gun owners then privacy is completely out the window.Â
Like I said, it's all incremental.
@axpman I never tell my doctor that I'm Jewish. Even when he diagnosed me with Tay-Sachs.
@Harry Merkin Ahhh, but did you offer him a gerkin with the service?
@Darktan Onion I didn't want him to see it was circumcised. Shh!!