All Magnet® narratives and supporting evidence files are at risk for PHI, but examples that require real patient stories are particularly at risk. One of the strongest types of evidence for the patient-specific examples (such as EP4, EP6, EP14, EP15, EP18, and SE13) is a redacted screenshot of the patient’s medical record that names the nurses involved in communicating with other disciplines to coordinate care across the settings. Naturally, the medical record will be full of PHI, including patient names, medical record numbers, dates of admission and discharge, etc. It is important to ensure that this protected information is redacted properly.
While Tipton Health is not a PHI screening service and does not review documents specifically for PHI, we do say something when we happen to see it. If an ANCC appraiser sees PHI in your narrative document or evidence, they will halt your document review, and they will not resume until you have removed every bit of offending PHI.
To ensure all of your documents are properly redacted, we recommend using the redaction tool in a PDF program, such as Adobe Acrobat. Simply placing a black box over the material may not prevent it from being visible when the document is viewed on other devices. It is also possible to print the document and use an official redaction marker pen to cross out the protected information and scan the document back in for review. If you use a redaction marker pen, be sure that no material is still visible under the marking. Following these processes will help ensure that protected information stays protected and minimize workflow interruptions due to PHI discovery.