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Removing Last Names From ID Badges Protected Staff Privacy After Stalking Incident
Overview
What was the reason for the change?
A patient began stalking-like behavior on social media of one of our PACU nurses. The patient tried to “friend” and “follow” and even sent direct messages to staff member.
What were we trying to accomplish?
Protect staff and their right to privacy.
How will we know that a change is an improvement?
Instituted barriers to finding staff members on social media.
Implementation
How long did it take to get up and running?
Quickly we taped over last names on IDs until new badges could be created.
What were the missteps and lessons learned along the way?
We have to be very careful of the discussion of personal information in patient care settings and keep a reasonable professional distance from our patients.
Solution Design
What changes can we make that will result in an improvement?
This began a discussion of what other barriers we should be considering
What was your implementation strategy and critical steps?
Super straightforward. All ID badges only read staff members’ first name and title or title and last name. Either first name is displayed for nurses and techs and for physicians only last name is displayed.
Adoption & Sustainability
How did you communicate the tactic to those affected by it?
Held dept meetings and discussed the implementation of the tactic in multiple meetings.
How did you design for sustainability of the change?
Involved the badge office in our discussions.
- privacy
- team member safety
