New guidelines balance privacy, police access to UW Hospital ER

Disagreements between doctors and police at UW Hospital in Madison have resulted in new guidelines on how to protect patient privacy — without impeding criminal investigations.

Some ER patients are also suspects or witnesses that police need to arrest or talk to. Madison Police spokesman Howard Payne says officers who wanted to be in the room with patients haven’t always been allowed to be present: “There have been a number of cases where law enforcement officers who were attempting to investigate matters met some resistance by ER doctors.”

Doctors and police often cross paths in ERs across the country. Brian Warren is with the International Association for Healthcare Security and Safety. “It’s extremely common that law enforcement is going to come to a local hospital room, especially the ER, in order to have a person checked in, for example. If there is a suspicion the person may be operating a vehicle under the influence, they would bring them there to verify that.”

For doctors and police it’s a delicate balancing act. They both have jobs to do and their priorities are not always the same. They also have to navigate a maze of federal and state privacy rules. Warren says sometimes the hospital itself has its own rules, “You also have individual facilities that may be more stringent: They can’t be less stringent than the federal rule. ”

Police and UW hospital officials met and developed new guidelines that allows officers in the ER under certain circumstances. The patient must be in custody or are a safety risk to health care providers.