Caught between loyalty and principle, the narrator dared to call out the violation, risking alienation to defend the dignity of another. But instead of gratitude, they faced cold silence and harsh judgment, revealing how standing up for what’s right can sometimes come with a heavy emotional cost.
My sister works in healthcare and seems to like her job. She also likes to judge others and make comments about their lifestyle, especially if she doesn’t agree with it. Recently, we had a family gathering and she was talking to our dad about one of his cousins, in front of a room full of people.
She brought up the topic by saying something like, “Isn’t Dave one of our cousins?” She then tells our dad (so everyone in the room) that said cousin recently came to the hospital for treatment for “xyz” illness and mentioned some other stuff about his medical background.
I just looked at her and said “HIPAA violation” in a sing song voice. Someone else asked what HIPAA was and I explained it meant that people’s info is supposed to be confidential and not shared willy-nilly.
She glared at me and then proceeded to ignore me the rest of the night. Later, I was told by another family member that I shouldn’t have called her out and I “know how she is”. Honestly, I get tired of walking around egg shells and I seem to be the only one that will challenge her/call her out.
But, now I’m wondering if I really was the AH?
Conclusion
The original poster (OP) felt compelled to publicly confront their sister over sharing private medical information at a family gathering, viewing it as a necessary step against her judgmental behavior and a perceived violation of patient confidentiality rules. This action caused immediate tension, with the sister reacting negatively and other family members suggesting the OP should have remained silent to maintain peace.
Was the OP justified in prioritizing the principle of confidentiality and addressing the sister’s inappropriate disclosure publicly, or was the confrontation inappropriate because it disrupted the family setting and disregarded the sister’s established behavior pattern? Where does the need for accountability end and the need for family harmony begin?
Here’s how people reacted:
I would understand if maybe she was speaking about a random patient because I can imagine as a doctor sometimes you may need to get stuff out and would share(but also not in front of alot of people) but the person she spoke about was a relative and thus everyone knew them so serious breach of confidence and even if it wasn’t a relative or someone everyone knew, she named and shamed him and that is a major breach of confidence. You should at the least tell Dave and hopefully he sues her for it.
You should tell Dave and report your sister to her place of employment. That’s a huge violation of Dave’s personal sense of privacy and security, and hospital policy. I’m not usually one for people losing their jobs, but I think it would be warranted in this scenario. I worked at a hospital in a non-clinical setting for years, and the hospital can’t even confirm whether or not a specific person is a patient at that location, let alone allow their employees to share private information with anyone. This is a major issue that deserves to be treated as such.
HIPAA’s rules apply only to sharing information between “covered entities.” The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services describes covered entities as “health plans, health care clearinghouses, and those health care providers that conduct certain health care transactions electronically.”
So, again, wrong, but not covered by HIPAA.
Like seriously, it’s basic healthcare 101. I applaud you for doing a singsong voice at her
Also the rest of the family should call her on it. If they go to where she works they know she will tell the rest of the family what is wrong with them even if they don’t want her to.
You did the right thing in the moment. The right thing NOW is to report her. What she did is a gross violation and there’s no way she doesn’t know that.