I work at a prominent local hospital here in Michigan as an Inpatient Unit Clerk, and I’m aware of the HIPPA laws and violations. On one night while training a new person to the unit she found something that should never happen, another patient’s documents in a different patient’s chart. The documents were missed filed. Now here is where the ethical decision was to be made. Should I have just corrected the problem and let it go or do I correct the problem and notify the supervisor for further action to be taken. Not only should I step up and do the right thing by correcting the error as well as notifying the supervisor but to teach the trainee the proper protocol of what to do in this case. I indeed corrected the issue then I wrote an
