SALEM, Ore. (AP) — As police and friends searched Monday for a missing 81-year-old man, Salem Hospital refused to tell police he was a patient, citing federal privacy law.
Hospital spokeswoman Sherryll Hoar says it was blocked by the law known as HIPAA.
The Statesman Journal reports (http://stjr.nl/10gRVFZ ) police learned Thomas Dill was a patient at Salem Hospital on Wednesday thanks to a tip from an anonymous caller.
Lt. Steve Birr says it's a cumbersome law, especially in missing person cases involving people with mental illness.
Birr doesn't think the hospital was being adversarial, but knowing he was a patient would have saved taxpayer dollars and spared Dill's friends anxiety.
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Information from: Statesman Journal, http://www.statesmanjournal.com
