Law enforcement officials say new privacy laws have made it harder to get information about crime victims.

For instance, North Charleston Detective Cpl. Chris Widmer recently called Medical University Hospital to check on a man who was shot during a robbery at a Stall Road mobile home park. Nurses in the intensive care unit wouldn't tell him whether the man was alive or dead, he said.

That was standard procedure even before privacy provisions of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act took effect April 14, said Sharon Knowles, who is responsible for the hospital's HIPAA compliance. Some criminals will impersonate police officers to try to find out whether they need to come back and finish the job, she said.

HIPAA requires hospitals to cooperate with law enforcement officials, Knowles said, but the hospital requires them to verify their identity and show evidence they're working on a crime that involves the patient, she said.

It's possible that publicity over HIPAA has made health care workers more cautious about giving out information to law enforcement, she said. For instance, a North Charleston detective had to secure a search warrant last month for information on suspicious injuries to an elderly woman at an area nursing home. Employees told deputies they could not discuss any aspect of the woman's medical condition because of the new privacy rules.

Because of the difficulty of getting information over the telephone, the sheriff's office sometimes stations a deputy at the hospital to make sure investigators can stay abreast of a patient's condition, said Detective Sgt. Jack Scarborough.

"You can waste an enormous amount of time traveling back and forth just to see if a person is in a condition to talk to you when you could be following up on other things," sheriff's Capt. Dana Valentine said.

North Charleston Lt. George Tetanich said deputies understand that doctors need to safeguard patients' health and protect their privacy, but investigators also have a job to do.

"We want to get information as quickly as we can so we can follow up on leads, solve the case and prevent something similar from happening to someone else," he said.