HSI ROUTINELY VIOLATES HIPAA REGULATIONS

March 6, 2018

So, I was coming home from the Morton Williams on 2nd Avenue at about 9:40 p.m., and from a block away I could see two ambulances and a police car pulled up in front of the building. When I came into the lobby, a tenant was on a stretcher near the fire alarm panels and elevator bays with a LOT of EMT workers helping him. 

Another tenant who had come into the building just before me and I waited by the entrance to the mail room to give them room enough to work with the tenant. It seemed impractical and potentially disrespectful to try to get to the elevators while they were in the hall. After a few minutes, one of the front desk workers came out to ask the EMTs what hospital they were taking the tenant to; this is a standard question they ask every time tenants are picked up by ambulance. They've been instructed to do this by the social work staff. One of the EMTs told him that they couldn't give him that information because it was a HIPAA violation, but if the tenant wanted to share it, that was up to him. 

The tenant didn't answer right away because he had a nebulizer or oxygen mask on his face. It's pretty much impossible to speak without moving the mask away from your face, which is not what you want to do while you're receiving a treatment to address difficulty breathing.The front desk worker explained that they've been told to collect that information so that the social workers can help provide continuity of care to the tenants.

Interesting. I've spoken to management and a social worker here about what they plan to do to comply with either adhering to the Department of Health's Smoke Free Housing recommendations or Intro 385, a law that the City Council recently passed to promote Asthma Free Housing by making sure that landlords take responsibility for cleaning up mice, roaches and mold in their buildings because these are the top 3 triggers for asthma. The social worker told me there weren't any specific plans at all. Management told me that it would be very difficult to make the building go smoke free and might pose legal issues. This sounds like they don't plan to do ANYTHING about something that would improve quality of life and health conditions for tenants in the building.

Meanwhile, as long as some tenants are allowed to smoke crack and marijuana in the building, the rest of us (many of whom DON'T smoke crack and marijuana) are forced to breathe nasty second hand smoke from illegal drugs - along with cigarette smoke. Second hand smoke causes health problems too.

The reason the front desk always asks where ambulances are taking tenants is because it helps the social workers provide "continuity of care" to the tenants. That's the "party line" that's been fed to the front desk. What is it that the social workers actually DO to help tenants with health issues? They aren't medical professionals. They collect a lot of personal information about tenants and report it to other agencies, but does very little for the tenants. It just ensures that they get a paycheck. Here's the link to HSI's privacy policy, which nobody seems to have seen, EVER: H.S.I.'s privacy policy