Unfiltered Story #189065

(I work as a secretary in a hospital, we will often get calls from family members asking for updates on patients, but to give them any information they have to give a pin number to validate that they should be given this information, this is REQUIRED by law(namely hipaa))

Caller: i want an update on my son

Me: ok, do you have a pin number, and can you tell me what room he is in?

Caller: oh my god, i just want an update on my son

Me: ok, we can’t give you an update if we don’t know who your son is

Caller: (talking to someone in the background) these hospital workers are so stupid i just want to know how my son is doing

Me: ok, but again, we cant tell you how your son is doing if we dont even know who he is (somehow i was supposed to just know who this caller is and who her son is)

Caller: these hospital workers… so stupid, my son is in 448

Me: ok, great!do you have a pin number?

Caller: oh my god, you’re so stupid i dont want to be transfered to my son i just want an update

Me: ok ma’am, i wasnt going to transfer you to your son, i just need a pin number, we can not legally give out information without it(by now I’ve noticed my coworkers listening in. See i work in a float pool so i move around to different units, but apparently they’ve dealt with this family member numerous times)

Caller: im not giving you the pin number i just want to get an update on my son. These hospital workers are just so stupid no common sense (again talking to her friend)

Me: again, we can not give out information without a pin number, it is against the law

This proceeded to go on about another 10 minutes, at this point i was just dragging it on to waste her time, i foublnd it funny. She eventually gave up.