Levy County Public Safety Director Mitch Harrell declined to release information concerning the self-quarantine of one of his ambulance crews due to the federal medical privacy act.
By Terry Witt – Spotlight Senior Reporter
County officials late Tuesday said they can’t absolutely say the person who came into contact with a Levy County ambulance crew tested negative for the Coronavirus nor can they say the person tested positive.
Spotlight learned Monday that the Emergency Medical Services crew was being self-quarantined because the unidentified patient they had worked with indicated possible contact with the Coronavirus.
Dave Peaton, assistant director of the Department of Emergency Management, said the only thing his department knows with certainty is that no one in Levy County has tested positive for the virus to this point.
“It’s state and federal law. The Department of Health can tell you the number of confirmed cases per county. The Department of Health says there are no confirmed cases in Levy County. That means by default it has not come back positive,” Peaton said.
But that doesn’t mean the person who had contact with the ambulance crew tested negative, Peaton said.
It is possible the information about the case may never be released to the public.
Peaton said the federal medical privacy act – the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act or HIPAA, protects the identity and medical history of the person who came into contact with the ambulance crew.
It also protects the ambulance crew’s medical history.
He said the Levy County Department of Emergency Management is the release point locally for any information regarding the Coronavirus, but he said the Florida Department of Health is the lead agency. The Levy County Health Department is part of the state Department of Health.
Attempts by Spotlight to obtain the test results have been difficult largely due to HIPAA. The federal privacy law protects sensitive patient health information from being disclosed without the patient’s consent or knowledge. It establishes a barrier between the patient and anyone seeking the patient’s medical information.
Peaton and County Public Safety Director Mitch Harrell said HIPAA forbade them from disclosing the patient’s medical information, even though the person’s name, gender, age, ethnicity, race, street address and general location weren’t being requested by Spotlight.
HIPAA is touchy, Harrell indicated. He said he has been working with the law.
Earlier, Harrell was asked if the ambulance crew was wearing sanitary masks when they worked with the person who may have come into contact with the Coronavirus.
Was your ambulance crew wearing protective masks? Harrell was asked by a reporter.
“Yes and no,” Harrell said.
The reporter indicated that wasn’t a clear answer.
Harrell said the media needed to get its information from the Department of Emergency Management. He said the county has a protocol that all information is released through Emergency Management.
Peaton, who works for the Department of Emergency Management, was then asked in a separate call if the ambulance crew was wearing protective masks at the time they encountered this individual.
“I have no information on what the ambulance crew was wearing or not wearing,” Peaton responded.
Harrell and Peaton, in the past, have gone out of their way to work with the news media on other issues, but the Coronavirus and HIPAA apparently present new challenges for the release of information to the media.
The Levy County Department of Emergency Management and the Levy County School District are relying largely on websites to communicate with the public about the Coronavirus.
But not everyone has internet access in Levy County.
Peaton said there is a considerable amount of misinformation circulating about the Coronavirus. Emergency Management is trying to provide verifiable information.
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Enterprise Reporting by Terry Witt: March 17, 2020; Posted March 17, 2020
