TheBigRedSD4

Starcraft

What league and race are you in starcraft?!

HIPAA does not prevent you from notifying a family member of their relative's death.

You may have department policies preventing you notifying parents, but if HIPAA is the only reason you did not notify the family you need to talk to your medical director.

Damn, I'm not sure if this is a frequent problem in the military but while I was in Iraq we had a Marine jump off an LAV and break his ankle. The doctors did an x-ray diagnosed it as a fracture and put him in a cast in Al Asad air base for 3 weeks. After 3 weeks he was still in searing pain, and so another doctor decided to take another look and discovered that it was actually broken all the way through and had no set at all. He was flown back to the US where they had to amputate his leg at the knee as well. Our unit flipped it's shit at the medical staff at Al Asad, and unfortunately the injured Marine had to be medically retired.

Is this considered a service related injury since you were on active duty when this occurred? Will you receive a medical pension of any kind? Will any veterans groups assist you with finding a prosthetic and readjusting to your new life?

Sorry to hear that happened man, and thanks for your service.

There's nothing in the HIPAA rules as far as I can tell that would prevent you from telling them over the phone if you could reasonably believe that they were who they were claiming to be. It's common practice at the EMS departments I have worked at. The HIPAA regulations themselves dictate you use professional discretion in determining what you release and to whom in this situation. https://www.law.cornell.edu/cfr/text/45/164.510 I would be comfortable releasing both the fact that the pt was deceased and the contact information for PD (who I presume handled the death investigation got custody of the body) if they could confirm over the phone the patient's name and their relationship.

Also. I'm not trying to be a contrarian jerk, this sounds like a pretty traumatic experience for both you and the family and one is that is not that uncommon in EMS operations. In the future, I 100% believe that you would be in compliance with HIPAA if you were to release pertinent information to the family in a similar situation which would hopefully make it less traumatic for both parties. I would have a conversation with whoever handles your HIPAA compliance about this whole situation.