In a world of spy cameras, Internet monitoring and telemarketer calls - a bit of privacy cannot be a bad thing. But some Athens religious leaders say a federal law implemented to protect the privacy of hospital patients has an unintended consequence barring them from ministering to some believers.
Gone is the time when Athens' ministers, clergy and rabbis, familiar faces around O'Bleness Memorial Hospital, 55 Hospital Dr., could request the patient register and scan it for names of congregation members, said Tammy Johnson, director of medical records and privacy officer.
The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act or HIPAA, a 1996 federal law, required hospitals countrywide to meet privacy guidelines by April 14, 2003. Now, all visitors must ask for patients by name before hospital staff can release room numbers and conditions. Patients also can opt out of being included at all on the registry, according to the Health and Human Services Web site (http://www.hhs.gov/ocr/hipaa/).
The federal law makes it difficult for O'Bleness to allow local religious leaders to minister freely, said the Rev. Willard Love of Athens Church of Christ, 75 W. Union St.
Though I understand the concern for privacy
this has made it very difficult for spiritual needs to be met Love said.
He said ministers have an obligation to serve their entire community, not just their congregation. Because he has worked as a volunteer chaplain for 28 years, Love sometimes helps people who are not members of his church.
Before HIPAA, he found names of acquaintances on the register and dropped in for periodic visits. But now, the patient or a relative must let him know if someone is hospitalized, because he needs to ask for the patient by his or her full name.
You have to play 21 questions even when you know when someone is in there Love said.
Though he said he complained to O'Bleness officials that the law has interrupted his ministry work, the hospital can do nothing without risking lawsuits.
Other religious leaders consider the new privacy law only a minor hurtle.
Father Martin Holler from Christ the King, 75 Stewart St., said when he first heard of HIPAA he worried it would impede his ministry.
But during the last few months, he and Glenda Frost, the parish coordinator for Church of the Good Shepherd, 64 University Terrace, have been able to rely on friends and family of his parishioners alerting the church when they are hospitalized.
Times have changed
Holler said. But we always manage to be able to see our folks.
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Emily Patterson
