There’s a lot of talk about not compromising HIPAA in PTCAS personal statements, and also a lot of confusion about how best to do this. Almost every PT application essay mentions patients, and doing so can help tell a story, but it’s still important to protect patients’ identities when describing them.
First of all, what is HIPAA?
HIPAA is an acronym for the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996. (And is not HIPPA). According to the CDC, it is, “a federal law that required the creation of national standards to protect sensitive patient health information from being disclosed without the patient’s consent or knowledge.”
There’s actually some debate as to whether you, as an applicant, even fall under HIPAA, since it refers to healthcare providers (and insurance plans). The average person who is not a healthcare provider is under no obligation to follow these laws. HIPAA might not apply to you if you were a volunteer or didn’t sign any forms agreeing to protect information, but either way, it is still best to protect people’s privacy when possible.
There are 18 specific things considered HIPAA identifiers that you cannot share with others. For pre-PT students, the most relevant are a patient’s:
- Name
- Address (all geographic subdivisions smaller than state, including street address, city county, and zip code)
- All elements (except years) of dates related to an individual (including birthdate, admission date, discharge date, date of death, and exact age if over 89)
- Any other characteristic that could uniquely identify the individual
Basically, no one should be able to read your essay and figure out who your patient is. For starters, don’t use a patient’s real name in an essay.
But I do think patients should be named. It makes the essay more personal and story-like when the patient has a name and you don’t have to say “the patient” repeatedly. To do so, give them a fake name and acknowledge that it is made up by writing something like, “I’ll call her Mary.”
Besides a name, include a few details about the patient. The reader needs to be able to visualize the patient and also understand why they are significant enough to write about. You likely saw dozens or even hundreds of patients while observing or working in a PT setting. So why did you pick this one for your essay?
So, give your patient an alias name, but don’t skimp on the details in order to write a compelling personal statement.
And if you need help editing your application essay, get in touch!