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Originally Posted by piecenick
I'm guessing this wasn't in the US. The HIPPA laws would hang extremely high fines on any medical facility which shows disregard for patient privacy. But the story was pretty cool.
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The hospital was indeed in the USA. I am also very familiar with HIPAA regulations. I am affiliated with a medical related non profit. We are often patient advocates re: HIPAA issues. HIPAA refers to the limited dissemination of a patient's personal info and records. Among other things, the law prevents third parties from unfairly using a patient's personal data. Example is a Human Resources department that could use a person's medical history to deny that person a job. People who have never been stricken by a specific malady have been denied jobs because others in their family have been infected. Before HIPAA, insurance companies could dig around in one's family history to project which job applicants were likely to contract an expensive to cover disease. What HIPAA does not do is require hospital staff to keep the curtains closed in the prep rooms.
In fact, hospitals today can justify continual observation of patients in the prep and recovery areas. Because it was not germane to the story, I did not mention that when I was taken to the prep area, over 30 minutes before the woman came in, a large man was in recovery in the same room that the woman used. While I was being interviewed by the anesthesia nurse and having a receptacle placed on my arm, a nurses aide was helping the large gentleman across the aisle get dressed. Because there had been some instances of recovery patients fainting or falling over, the hospital regs require that the patient remains under constant observation until released. Hence, open curtains. Also, because of some inappropriate touching accusations by women in the past, open curtain observation protects both the patient and the staffers from complaints. The price of that protection is the loss of privacy. While I personally hate the lack of privacy when using hospital facilities and have often said so, I know why it is the way it is. I may not like it but the hospitals are actually acting within the law.
All of the above was not germane to the core of the story. I simply compressed time to get into the more entertaining aspects of my day.