Can't the numerous Hawaii hospitals where Stanley Obama/Dunham was NOT a patient on Aug. 4, 1961 simply legally say that she was NOT a patient at the hospital?
1. For instance, let's say a reporter is doing a story on me,John Mirse,(just my screenname) who recently died .
2. The reporter walks into a Hawaii hospital and explains to the hospital administrator that he is doing a story on me, who recently died.
The reporter explains that John Mirse was a local hero back in Kansas (not where I really live), and it seems that he spent some time in a Hawaii hospital when he was in the military during the Vietnam War.
The reporter explains that he came to Hawaii to try to find out if any Hawaii hospital had a record of a John Mirse being in a Hawaii hospital during the Vietnam war.
3. Do you really think that hospital personnel will say nothing, or do you think that the hospital personnel will cooperate with the reporter and at least check hospital records to see if a John Mirse was ever a patient at that Hawaii hospital?
4. I say that the Hawaii hospital would have no legal restraints to at least tell the reporter whether or not a John Mirse was ever a patient at the hospital, the main reason being that I was dead.
5. My point is this: On the one hand, it is one thing for a Hawaii hospital to say that it cannot reveal details of why a person was in that particular hospital, but, on the other hand, it is another thing to simply say whether or not a person was ever a patient in that hospital, especially if the patient is now dead, or, if the person was never a patient in that particular hospital to begin with.
They probably have no legal obligation to her. But, as I mentioned above, properly trained health care professionals will simply refuse to comment on issues like this. Otherwise, you could do an end-run around the privacy rules through a process of elimination (if ten hospitals tell you someone was not a patient but the 11th refuses to comment, you can deduce that the person might have been a patient).
Do you really think that hospital personnel will say nothing, or do you think that the hospital personnel will cooperate with the reporter and at least check hospital records to see if a John Mirse was ever a patient at that Hawaii hospital?
If they have received proper training by legal counsel, they will tell you that the hospital does not reveal anything about their patient list, period.
I say that the Hawaii hospital would have no legal restraints to at least tell the reporter whether or not a John Mirse was ever a patient at the hospital, the main reason being that I was dead.
Your legal privacy rights do not go away when you die. They simply come under the control of your estate
With the passage of HIPAA, hospitals have gotten very careful about what they reveal. For example, when a co-worker of mine called the hospital where my wife gave birth to our son to confirm they were still there so he could send flowers, the hospital would not even confirm that fact.