Patients’ complete names are no longer posted on grease boards or other directories that physicians for decades have been used to seeing when they enter a unit.

Lists of patients in areas which are accessible to the public are in violation of federal HIPAA regulations. So since May, posted unit rosters now include no more than a first initial and the first three letters of the surname.

“It’s understood that this is an inconvenience, but unfortunately we have no choice on this one,” said Chief of Staff Bryan D. Bohman in a May 19 email to medical staff members.

“Patient directories with full identification can be kept at the ward clerk desk, as long as they are kept from public visibility,” Bohman said.