Elderly Widow

An elderly widow who lives alone is brought to the ER by a neighbor who found the woman partially conscious in the hallway of her apartment building. The neighbor tells the ER intake clerk that the patient lives alone but has a daughter who lives 200 miles away and a grandson who lives in the same town but has not seen his grandmother in 10 years. Who could the hospital notify? Is there anyone else to whom information about the patient’s condition could be disclosed? What, if anything, could the hospital tell the neighbor who brought the woman in about the patient’s condition? Choose: 1. Obtaining the individual’s agreement to the disclosure 2. Providing the individual with a specific opportunity to object to the disclosure, and the individual does not express an objection to the disclosure 3.Reasonably inferring from the circumstances, based on the exercise of professional judgment, that the individual does not object to the disclosure 3.A 12-year-old girl is brought to the ER by a schoolmate and the schoolmate’s mother. The girl claims that she has been attacked and raped. Her parents are divorced, and her mother, who is at work, has sole custody of the child, although her father lives nearby in the same town. Who could the hospital notify? To whom could information about the patient be disclosed, if asked? What, if anything, could the hospital tell the people who brought the girl to the ER about the patient’s condition? Choose: 1. Obtaining the individual’s agreement to the disclosure 2. Providing the individual with a specific opportunity to object to the disclosure, and the individual does not express an objection to the disclosure 3.Reasonably inferring from the circumstances, based on the exercise of professional judgment, that the individual does not object to the disclosure 4. A famous singer falls off her horse in a nasty riding accident and is rushed to the hospital. She signs in under an assumed name. What PHI could be disclosed about the singer and her medical condition, and to whom could it be disclosed? Choose: 1. Obtaining the individual’s agreement to the disclosure 2. Providing the individual with a specific opportunity to object to the disclosure, and the individual does not express an objection to the disclosure 3.Reasonably inferring from the circumstances, based on the exercise of professional judgment, that the individual does not object to the disclosure