Cincinnati, OH Hospital accused

Nurses HIPAA

Published

http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/oddnews/woman-says-medical-staff-posted-her-std-diagnosis-on-facebook-195651323.html

The gist of the article is that a woman had syphilis. Her ex-boyfriend and several hospital employees are accused of giving him access to the medical records and then someone posted it on Facebook. Her friends made fun of him.

I really wonder how the records were released? The only way I can think of it is that the boyfriend managed to convince them that some woman was the woman or something. I would also wonder if the ex knew something was up when the county board of health contacted him about the possible exposure considering that diagnosis is mandatory reporting. However, it's weird that the article words it that the employees posted which unless the employees are best buds or even the ex boyfriend, I don't see how they posted the records.

TriciaJ, RN

4,328 Posts

Specializes in Psych, Corrections, Med-Surg, Ambulatory.

The woman's ex-boyfriend may have had friends in the hospital who had access to records and were none-too-scrupulous. There are a lot of people who still think they can post things and not have them be traced back. The hospital may well have had all the safeguards in place; all it takes is one (or two) bad employees.

The employees should be summarily terminated and all of them should be subject to any applicable legal charges. As far as the woman's former friends laughing at her, they obviously never were her friends. She had to find out sometime. I suspect more people are sympathetic than she realizes.

+ Add a Comment