I called several hospitals in a panic last year looking for a relative I couldn’t locate (who was supposed to meet me somewhere and did not show up and would not answer their cell phone) and every single hospital looked up the information for me without hesitation.
HIPPA has been twisted and distorted by government bureaucracies and insurance companies to benefit them and not the people it was originally meant to protect. Like so many other things that the government touches it has turned into a steaming pile of nonsense.