| The Healthcare Integrity and Protection Data | | | | against the offending party. As the situation |
| Bank is a federal database that keeps track of | | | | exists, you are not even privy to the knowledge |
| nurses and other healthcare professionals who | | | | that your file contains. |
| have been disciplined for a variety of reasons. | | | | Under Section 1128E of the Social Security Act, |
| According the website at the Department of | | | | "the Secretary [of HHS] will...provide for...disclosure |
| Health and Human Services, the HIPDB was | | | | of the information, upon request, to the health |
| created in 1996, "to combat fraud and abuse in | | | | care provider, supplier, or licensed practitioner." |
| health insurance and health care delivery." These | | | | The problem, like many things in the federal |
| are very noble and lofty goals, and work to instill | | | | system, is that bureaucracy makes this |
| confidence of the general public into the hands of | | | | information gathering almost completely |
| nurses nationwide. Certainly most nurses don't | | | | unavailable. According to NPR, not even the hiring |
| want to have to work around people who are | | | | agencies that employ nurses, such as hospitals |
| negligent and unsafe. They also want patients to | | | | and nursing homes can access the database. A |
| trust them. Any breech of that trust reflects | | | | recent feature story says that Dr. Sidney Wolfe, |
| poorly on the profession as a whole. | | | | CEO of the Public Citizen's Health Research Group, |
| The unfortunate part of the issue is that at this | | | | "notes that there are more than 102,000 nurses, |
| time, the federal government will not provide you | | | | nurse aides, pharmacists and pharmacy assistants |
| access to the information contained in your | | | | who've been disciplined and included in the registry, |
| particular file. Suppose you were accused of | | | | but that hospitals and nursing homes can't check |
| something and written up in absentia. Through the | | | | the data bank." This useful tool to protect the |
| court system and throughout all of labor law, you | | | | profession is just something else to be thrown in |
| would be entitled to some course of action | | | | the trash bin of bureaucracy. |