Brief (Hopefully) Hiatus

Hey everyone. Just as one emotional period passes through, another thing crops up to take its place. I submitted my rank list exactly one week ago and was looking forward to the rest of my year, especially March since I have no clinical responsibilities this month. However, on day one of my awesome month-cation, I was emailed by the privacy officer at my hospital saying that I've been implicated in a HIPAA violation. I don't want to write about the details of the situation on this blog. It was a relatively minor Level 1 accidental violation, although it's still a serious offense that requires paperwork and various levels of administrative involvement. I'm thanking my lucky stars that no patient harm resulted from this violation. I met with the privacy officer who said that the issue was a contained matter that thankfully did not need to be reported federally or even to the state since no third party discovered the contents of my improperly disposed patient health information. Not sure what that really means, but I'm hoping that it's good news that won't lead to any incriminating charges. He reported the matter to the human resources at my university and I'm waiting to hear back from them, or from the student administration from my medical school. The privacy officer reassured me that termination was highly unlikely in this case, although I'm sure I will receive some sort of oral or written counseling/warning, which I totally deserve. I'm not sure if this will go on my permanent record or if the hospital I will be matching at will receive report of this. I'm not sure of anything at this point, which is why I'm incredibly nervous and haven't been able to function lately. Like I said, although the privacy officer made it seem like this incident wasn't a relatively huge deal, I'm still really worried about what sort of punishment I will receive for this and how this will impact my future career. I've been a very good, professional student throughout my entire career and the last thing I wanted for this to happen and potential patient harm to occur only two months before I graduate. In any case, I will be taking a break for blogging and I hope to be back soon with good news.