techrecovery | Feb. 8th, 2011

Background: I work in IS Operations for a hospital. We do mainframe backups, server maintenance, run ad-hocs for different things that need to run through the day, and to my eternal disma, we do help desk at night.

Annoyance 1:

I got a call from a newly hired pharmacy tech last night. She asked me for her username and password for the system we use for medical records. The system isn't important. What is important, is that that's not how it work. You receive an envelope through interoffice mail stamped confidential with a seal. It goes to your manager, who in turn, provides it to you. You also have to sign a document stating that you got the envelope with your codes and you logged in with them, then shredded the document with your credentials. You are taught this in orientation. I can only reset your password or provide your credentials if you have logged in before. That is because you are only issued a username and password if you have completed the training and been taught the HIPAA policies regarding it.

She calls and asks for her credentials, which isn't a big deal. I tell her what the process is, and she tells me she will contact her manager. She calls me back tonight and said that her manager emailed her to call me to get her Misys ID number and password. She even forwarded me the email. Her manager has to have worked here for at least five years, given her employee ID number. You don't get to be a manager without being familiar with HIPAA laws. She KNOWS better. So, the tech gets irritable with me, because I refuse to give her the credentials. I tell her, "That is policy. I answer to . If I were to do that, I would be subsequently fired, and I don't care who told you what, made the policy, you just completed orientation so you should have learned the policy, and I'm not going to risk a HIPAA violation, because your manager wants us to circumvent due process." She hung up on me. This is the third time this has happened. I am emailing my manager about it. I wouldn't have been so rigid in the way I told her, had she not been so pushy.

Annoyance In Which Communication Fails:

Radiology has a system that handles x-rays, bone scans, MRIs, CTs, etc. It's the imaging system, and it stores and delivers an image of each of those types of tests to whoever needs access. One of the systems is down. It's equipment that is handled by a GE Contract. One of my coworkers says we don't handle it, and as far as that is concerned, he is right(process is documented). Evidently, the administrator of said system who actually works in radiology, cancelled the contract. Nobody told IS. We support it now, due to lack of a contract. My coworker should have emailed him, instead of the three day circle jerk in which they just played hot potato with the issue.

It's little things, but I get a couple of these every night. People just try to pass the buck. It's seriously beginning to piss me off.