We are utilizing our Health Care Staff (2) and our Adventure Staff, all 24-25, for health screening. I have been asked if this is a HIPPA violation. I know from the April 03 info that each camp was to determine their policy on this, and the parents do sign a blanket statement as suggested by ACA. If we limited our incoming day screening to 2 people, we would never get through the 150 campers. How do others handle this?
Thanks
HIPAA guidelines state that health information is on a need-to-know basis. In this case, your adventure staff need to see the health information in order to do an effective screening. It is not a problem. (I'm curious as to how anyone might think it IS a problem?) Of course, any camper or their parent can request that the health staff do their particular screening. I doubt that any would, unless they have health concerns--but it would be wise to have anyone with real health needs be screened by the person with the highest certification, anyway.
Definitely, you would need to educate your screening staff--particularly non-medical-professionals--on privacy; make sure they understand that information gathered during screening is not to be passed along indiscriminately or misused.
That said, I don't honestly find it that hard to screen ~120 campers with two people--one doing the primary screening, one doing a lice check. Unless you're a special needs camp, I wonder if your process needs streamlining?
Re streamlining process - we prescreen the health forms, sort into 3 categories - 1 - have a condition that needs nurse to review (asthma, allergies, etc.) 2 - have meds, 3- no meds, no indication of anything. If we have things like "allergie to insects" we call the parent to get details prior to their child coming. Girls arrive, take off shoes, 3 do lice check and check feet, then then are seen by Health Center staff in the 3 categories above. I have no idea how to streamline any further - ideas?