Hospitals should be allowed to give basic information to police, according to Salt Lake Deputy District Attorney Kent Morgan. A couple of years ago, Morgan wrote a letter to clarify HIPAA rules and how they pertain to law enforcement.

"A health-care provider can disclose limited information in response to law enforcement's request to identify or locate a suspect," he stated.

Morgan reaffirmed his statement Thursday.

"HIPAA was never designed to hide suspects or to obstruct from police investigations. Rather it was designed to protect the privacy of individuals' records who are receiving medical care," he said.

However, patients checked into facilities that receive federal funding for substance abuse treatment, such as Uni, receive special protections. Police must have both a search warrant and an arrest warrant before doctors can disclose whether a patient has been admitted.

The intent of the law is to keep people from being deterred from seeking treatment for their substance abuse problems, said Liz Winter, deputy General Counsel at the University of Utah.

Hospital spokesman Chris Nelson added, "I don't think we're trying to be antagonistic toward law enforcement."

Nelson said obtaining search warrants from the courts should be fairly easy for law enforcers and shouldn't severely slow down their investigations.

Jaroscak said playing by the paperwork rules is common and may be fine in most circumstances.

"But if someone has been murdered, for example, and they won't tell us where the murderer is . . . that's different," he said. "Had this informant not told us where he (Martinez) was at, he could have hidden out (at Uni) for a while, wait till things die down and then check out and head out of state. Or worse, he may go try to find the victim."

While HIPAA is designed to protect the rights of patients, in this case, Jaroscak said, "The system failed in our efforts to protect the victim."

Winter, however, said even with privacy rules, if doctors or nurses feel they are in danger or notice red flags from a patient that their safety or the safety of other patients is in jeopardy, they can call police and notify them.

"We don't want dangerous people being in our hospital," she said.

Hospital officials also note that sometimes officers will arrest a person, bring the individual to the hospital for treatment, leave and ask that the hospital notify them when the patient is released.

Winter said police should stick around until the patient is ready to go.

"If they're really dangerous, don't leave a hundred-pound nurse to guard him," she said.

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