You don't have experience with HIPAA, and what you're describing is not at all true. > Informal discussion of patients has been stopped. The feedback channels

You don't have experience with HIPAA, and what you're describing is not at all true. > Informal discussion of patients has been stopped. The feedback channels that allow for discovery of subtle problems and their solutions have been removed. No way. I work with hospitals, there are plenty of feedback channels and cases get discussed at length. HIPAA does nothing at all to stop any communication or data sharing that is beneficial for patient safety. > ER staff used to visit their patients, and keep in touch with them, this stopped with HIPPA. This is dehumanizing. This is not at all true. > Imagine if developers weren't ever allowed to discuss bugs in their programs, unless they were actively working on the same bug? Think of how much that would kill productivity. Hospitals literally do these kinds of debriefs all the time. HIPAA does nothing to stop them at all. > It is far far safer for them to shut all talk about patients down, in terms of patient satisfaction, lawyers, lawsuits and fines. You totally misunderstood HIPAA, what it regulates, and how it regulates. It in no way shuts down conversations about patients. I deal with HIPAA-protected data and compliance all the time, I have no idea where you got this impression, but it was not from a doctor.