I feel so needly lately, sorry everyone. So here's the story, anyone who can help out with advice, suggestions, places/people who I should talk to... please jump in.
At my last command in San Diego, the ONLY people who were aware of my Infertility and IVF treatments were my Chief and an HM1 in the office and they were only informed so I could attend doctors appointments, ask for appropirate time off for treatments. I kept that information from ALL of my coworkers (mainly upon Marks request) for over a year, also because I know what big mouths they have and didn't want my health information all over the base. Even my immediate supervisor wasn't aware, only the top two in my chain of command.
So I got a phone call tonight from a friend who I use to work with down there in the office. She said to me, "julie, I have to ask you something ok. I heard from Heather, who heard from liz (sounds like High school) that you are trying to get pregnant to get off your ship and to avoid deployment and that you have to be taking infertility drugs because you can't get pregnant and that you might be kicked out because of all of this". I still don't think this is/was any of her business right now so I denied it all (yah I lied, but it's my right) but I am SO absolutely pissed off you don't even understand. There is only ONE way that this could have happened.
I recall my chief on the boat (that I was suppose to be attached to) telling me that he was going to call my Chief in San Diego and talk to him about this. The next day he had talked to either my chief or the HM1 about it because he was asking me, "what did your chief/chain of command tell you about getting pregnant while on sea duty". So I know he talked to them, and that's fine and within the scope of HIPPA regulations because they were trying to facilitate my treatment and get some additional and background information about the situation. I don't have a problem with that at all.
What I do have a problem with is when either that Chief or HM1 Opened his big fat mouth and told liz in the office about the infertility treatment. There were probably a few calls a day going into my old office during the last few weeks because of all the commotion I had caused trying to do the IVF and so on, so that part is my own doing. But LIZ had NO need to know this, she is no longer in my chain of command and even when she was, I choose NOT to and asked that NO ONE else disclose the information to anyone, even her. And I know nobody in their right mind, the chief on what was going to be my ship, nor the chief at TPU where I am working right now, nor the senior chief who was trying to help me get all of this resolved, would think of talking the issue out with any of the front desk staff. It is a "kaki" (as they call it) issue at the very least and if chief was absent, then HM1 should have handled it.
So, now that my private, personal health information is all over the place I am ticked and will be starting an investigation tomorrow at work. I know some people may say, "but you have your CF/male infertility website and your pictures are on this CF website" but I NEVER shared my website with anyone at the command except my chief so he could put it on my evaluation nor did I ever share this website. Nobody I worked with even knew about Mark's CF because he asks me not to tell, so I don't. Nor do I use ANY last names because Mark likes to keep this as private as possible. Initially there wasn't even going to be a photo posted on this CF website but we decided to so people could feel the "knew" who they were speaking to.
Does anyone know, where can I file a complaint aside from my command? Is their a HIPPA complaint center or something like that, someone I can call or write to? I am usually ok looking all this up myself but I am just not having any luck tonight. I am emotional on hormones then this just blew me out of the water. I am exhausted and on top of it sick (cold/flu) so I am just not myself these last few days. Any help that anyone could offer would be appreciated.
Also, it might be worthwhile to note that both the chief and the HM1 are hospital corpsman just like I am so we provide medical care. We are taught the in's and out's of HIPPA and the importance of the privacy of healthcare so there's no excuse for the two of them. As for liz, she's just a Bostwains mate (not sure I spelled that right) so she has no medical background and I'm not too sure that she could be held to the HIPPA law anyways because she recieved the information third party.
Thanks for any suggestions, links, phone numbers..
At my last command in San Diego, the ONLY people who were aware of my Infertility and IVF treatments were my Chief and an HM1 in the office and they were only informed so I could attend doctors appointments, ask for appropirate time off for treatments. I kept that information from ALL of my coworkers (mainly upon Marks request) for over a year, also because I know what big mouths they have and didn't want my health information all over the base. Even my immediate supervisor wasn't aware, only the top two in my chain of command.
So I got a phone call tonight from a friend who I use to work with down there in the office. She said to me, "julie, I have to ask you something ok. I heard from Heather, who heard from liz (sounds like High school) that you are trying to get pregnant to get off your ship and to avoid deployment and that you have to be taking infertility drugs because you can't get pregnant and that you might be kicked out because of all of this". I still don't think this is/was any of her business right now so I denied it all (yah I lied, but it's my right) but I am SO absolutely pissed off you don't even understand. There is only ONE way that this could have happened.
I recall my chief on the boat (that I was suppose to be attached to) telling me that he was going to call my Chief in San Diego and talk to him about this. The next day he had talked to either my chief or the HM1 about it because he was asking me, "what did your chief/chain of command tell you about getting pregnant while on sea duty". So I know he talked to them, and that's fine and within the scope of HIPPA regulations because they were trying to facilitate my treatment and get some additional and background information about the situation. I don't have a problem with that at all.
What I do have a problem with is when either that Chief or HM1 Opened his big fat mouth and told liz in the office about the infertility treatment. There were probably a few calls a day going into my old office during the last few weeks because of all the commotion I had caused trying to do the IVF and so on, so that part is my own doing. But LIZ had NO need to know this, she is no longer in my chain of command and even when she was, I choose NOT to and asked that NO ONE else disclose the information to anyone, even her. And I know nobody in their right mind, the chief on what was going to be my ship, nor the chief at TPU where I am working right now, nor the senior chief who was trying to help me get all of this resolved, would think of talking the issue out with any of the front desk staff. It is a "kaki" (as they call it) issue at the very least and if chief was absent, then HM1 should have handled it.
So, now that my private, personal health information is all over the place I am ticked and will be starting an investigation tomorrow at work. I know some people may say, "but you have your CF/male infertility website and your pictures are on this CF website" but I NEVER shared my website with anyone at the command except my chief so he could put it on my evaluation nor did I ever share this website. Nobody I worked with even knew about Mark's CF because he asks me not to tell, so I don't. Nor do I use ANY last names because Mark likes to keep this as private as possible. Initially there wasn't even going to be a photo posted on this CF website but we decided to so people could feel the "knew" who they were speaking to.
Does anyone know, where can I file a complaint aside from my command? Is their a HIPPA complaint center or something like that, someone I can call or write to? I am usually ok looking all this up myself but I am just not having any luck tonight. I am emotional on hormones then this just blew me out of the water. I am exhausted and on top of it sick (cold/flu) so I am just not myself these last few days. Any help that anyone could offer would be appreciated.
Also, it might be worthwhile to note that both the chief and the HM1 are hospital corpsman just like I am so we provide medical care. We are taught the in's and out's of HIPPA and the importance of the privacy of healthcare so there's no excuse for the two of them. As for liz, she's just a Bostwains mate (not sure I spelled that right) so she has no medical background and I'm not too sure that she could be held to the HIPPA law anyways because she recieved the information third party.
Thanks for any suggestions, links, phone numbers..