A healthcare worker releasing an accident report which contains a victims identity, condition, treatment, etc. to a curious bystander without obtaining the victim's consent is a violation of HIPPA.

Now, if the healthcare worker emailed an electronic copy of the medical report to the victim's health care provider...yeah, bad ju ju.

But...chattin' with a curious bystander? Its bad conduct (and certainly unethical), but, is it really illegal? Severe penalties? I can't imagine it would be.

Jeff-

I was interested in learning more about climbing from such a reputable and experienced climber such as your self. Having been climbing since 1996 and with epic climbs under your belt such as Southern Illinois, I was hoping you could teach me a few things.

To your climbing partner-

Give Jeff about 60m of penalty slack for his sensitivity these situations.

Oh, one more thing Jeff. Next time you have photos taken of you climbing, make sure they are taken from the ground. The glare from your bald spot really makes it difficult to see your GREAT sandbagged climbs.

BrianinSLC- you are clearly out of your element, and lack even the most fundmental understanding of HIPPA

7 Pages worth of posts .. and NOT ONE of them describes what the climber did that lead to this accident ..

.. we say that we discuss these accidents so we can learn.. so lets put up or shut up ..

.. please .. someone that knows that happened, post an accident report .. or post wether a report is being investigated .. lets find out where the pilor error occurred, so others can learn..

You're right...I'm not in a health care related business and I'm swimming in CFR 45 parts 160 - 164. How does the common man even begin to understand this stuff?

And, maybe we're not talkin' the same subject. I'm referring to, "the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996". Which seemed to be enacted primarily to protect workers against discrimination when they change health care coverage.

There's a privacy component to the Act. Under the Privacy Rules (amended as recently as April last year...and still being hotly debated it seems), there appears to be "permitted disclosure". I'll summarize what I think it says:

A covered entity may disclose protected health information if the covered entity, in good faith, believes the use or disclosure is necessary to prevent or lesson a serious and imminent threat to the health or safety of a person or the public and is to a person or persons reasonably able to prevent or lesson the threat.

So, act in good faith and you're goin' to be ok. Are health care providers in the field at an accident site at risk, professionally? Geez, I'd hope not, and, I don't think that was the intent of HIPAA at all.

Talk about your thread drift...but...its interesting...and, my main climbing partner is a health care provider aka, a "covered entity"...and they don't think HIPAA applies in the situation discussed in this thread. Be unethical, in poor taste, etc. But, no risk to lose license etc.

HIPAA applies mainly to institutions, providers, practitioners, and not good samaritans...?

Convince me otherwise? You must be in the biz...what part?

The sky is falling the sky is falling...? Duck...

Brian in SLC

As said earlier, we know that she was as the anchor and was setting up a rappel. That is all we know at the time. As it would seem, it was pilot error, since the bolts are still in the rock. At this time, that is all that is known.

I am actively attempting to discover more, but Dani is going to be very busy in the next few weeks with orthopedic appointments and such and such.
For now, I think all that needs to be known is to be careful when switching from leading, to anchoring, to rappeling. That's very broad, yes, but I doubt that this accident was caused by some situation that was never considered prior to that day.

As I said, she is at home. It is my impression that they are expecting a full recovery.