Personal Statement, HIPAA + Minors

[juicepirate7]

Hi,

So I have gone back and forth and I really do believe sharing a REALLY short story about a patient experience will really strengthen my personal statement. I know as per HIPAA that I will not be including 1)the patient's gender 2)the patient's condition 3)location, basically literally anything identifiable, not even where I was working at the time (I've done multiple patient care jobs so they wouldn't even be able to tell from my resume).

I was really just going to say what day of the week it happened (not a date, just day like "it was a wednesday") and so my real question that I cannot get answered is because it was an adolescent patient, am I even allowed to write about the experience at all?

Again, I will write super vague but I basically wanted to say "It was a wednesday. She was just a girl. And I could see in her eyes that..." and then go on to why I want to be a doctor from that experience. (It may sound bad and cheesy but I think it really works)

Anyways, I am just worried that because I say "Girl" since she's a minor maybe even if I don't give identifying info it's still a violation?? I know it doesn't seem that important that she was under 18 but the fact that she was a pediatric patient is actually super important to my own story. But if it needs to be excluded then I need to know now. And then can I just exclude it or can I not talk about the experience at all because it included a minor?

Thanks in advance!

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[jhmmd]

Hi,

So I have gone back and forth and I really do believe sharing a REALLY short story about a patient experience will really strengthen my personal statement. I know as per HIPAA that I will not be including 1)the patient's gender 2)the patient's condition 3)location, basically literally anything identifiable, not even where I was working at the time (I've done multiple patient care jobs so they wouldn't even be able to tell from my resume).

I was really just going to say what day of the week it happened (not a date, just day like "it was a wednesday") and so my real question that I cannot get answered is because it was an adolescent patient, am I even allowed to write about the experience at all?

Again, I will write super vague but I basically wanted to say "It was a wednesday. She was just a girl. And I could see in her eyes that..." and then go on to why I want to be a doctor from that experience. (It may sound bad and cheesy but I think it really works)

Anyways, I am just worried that because I say "Girl" since she's a minor maybe even if I don't give identifying info it's still a violation?? I know it doesn't seem that important that she was under 18 but the fact that she was a pediatric patient is actually super important to my own story. But if it needs to be excluded then I need to know now. And then can I just exclude it or can I not talk about the experience at all because it included a minor?

Thanks in advance!

Why don't you fudge the details a little per HIPAA and call her an adult male or something...there are no laws prohibiting students from telling stories about minors, I believe. Just bad form (depending on the situation).

 

[Mr.Smile12]

There are no set rules except for respecting confidentiality. Sure you could have gotten permission from the guardian, but there is no requirement for proof here. For all we know you could have an adult patient you are masking as a child. Just make sure the details are appropriately relevant to your overall goal for the story.

Also this is where your brevity serves you. Why not identify as just a child? Did the gender matter here?

 

[auyftiv]

None of those are HIPAA violations. You can talk all you want about the patient, provided the information you give could not be used by someone else to directly identify who the patient was. Here are what count as identifiers: 18 HIPAA Identifiers: Information Technology Services: Loyola University Chicago

 

[Goro]

Hi,

So I have gone back and forth and I really do believe sharing a REALLY short story about a patient experience will really strengthen my personal statement. I know as per HIPAA that I will not be including 1)the patient's gender 2)the patient's condition 3)location, basically literally anything identifiable, not even where I was working at the time (I've done multiple patient care jobs so they wouldn't even be able to tell from my resume).

I was really just going to say what day of the week it happened (not a date, just day like "it was a wednesday") and so my real question that I cannot get answered is because it was an adolescent patient, am I even allowed to write about the experience at all?

Again, I will write super vague but I basically wanted to say "It was a wednesday. She was just a girl. And I could see in her eyes that..." and then go on to why I want to be a doctor from that experience. (It may sound bad and cheesy but I think it really works)

Anyways, I am just worried that because I say "Girl" since she's a minor maybe even if I don't give identifying info it's still a violation?? I know it doesn't seem that important that she was under 18 but the fact that she was a pediatric patient is actually super important to my own story. But if it needs to be excluded then I need to know now. And then can I just exclude it or can I not talk about the experience at all because it included a minor?

Thanks in advance!

You're way overthinking this.

You're allowed to say "Joanie" or "Ralph" was a frightened N year old getting prepped for surgery...

 

[allseasons]

Hi,

So I have gone back and forth and I really do believe sharing a REALLY short story about a patient experience will really strengthen my personal statement. I know as per HIPAA that I will not be including 1)the patient's gender 2)the patient's condition 3)location, basically literally anything identifiable, not even where I was working at the time (I've done multiple patient care jobs so they wouldn't even be able to tell from my resume).

I was really just going to say what day of the week it happened (not a date, just day like "it was a wednesday") and so my real question that I cannot get answered is because it was an adolescent patient, am I even allowed to write about the experience at all?

Again, I will write super vague but I basically wanted to say "It was a wednesday. She was just a girl. And I could see in her eyes that..." and then go on to why I want to be a doctor from that experience. (It may sound bad and cheesy but I think it really works)

Anyways, I am just worried that because I say "Girl" since she's a minor maybe even if I don't give identifying info it's still a violation?? I know it doesn't seem that important that she was under 18 but the fact that she was a pediatric patient is actually super important to my own story. But if it needs to be excluded then I need to know now. And then can I just exclude it or can I not talk about the experience at all because it included a minor?

Thanks in advance!

haha, that's funny. In my PS I included the patient's gender, condition, and location. As you can see in my signature, it doesn't seem to have done much negative. Didn't even cross my mind it would be a problem tbh.

 

[Planes2Doc]

You should be fine. Don't overthink it. In my personal statement, I wrote about a patient with a stroke. I don't remember if I mentioned gender or not, but it doesn't really matter since this is a common occurrence. Now if you're talking about a kid being diagnosed with something like Fatal Familial Insomnia, then I would worry about HIPAA. Otherwise, it's doubtful any of this would raise any eyebrow.

 

[LizzyM]

Now I'm confused. You aren't including gender but you say that she was "just a girl". Isn't that contradictory?

A girl with a common condition on a Wednesday does not in any way violate a patient's right to privacy or HIPAA (rather than get bogged down in HIPAA, let's just go old school and remember that we should be maintaining a patient's privacy and the right they have to have their records kept confidential).