Hospital Workers Suspended for Peeking at George Clooney's Medical Info

Nurses General Nursing

Published

http://www.abcnews.go.com/Entertainment/story?id=3710322&page=1

Staff members at Palisades Medical Center have been suspended for allegedly peeking at actor George Clooney's confidential medical information after he was hurt in a motorcycle accident last month.
Specializes in Community, OB, Nursery.

Hmmmm. Look at George or look at his records? I think I know which I'd pick! ;)

In all seriousness, as tempting as it may be, nobody is worth losing my job. And it's his (or anybody else's) right as a patient to not have everybody & their brother looking at their stuff.

A few years back, while working at a community health center, someone came up with the great idea of combining medical and dental records for the migrant farmworker patients that would be visiting us for a season only. Another nurse and I fought it because people working on someone's teeth have no need to know if she has been recently treated for a lady partsl yeast infection or something similar. We fought it, and eventually, we won. That's only remotely related to George Clooney's medical record, but the point is that EVERYBODY'S stuff is private and should be kept that way.

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i'm surprised they only got suspensions.

to me, it is clearly a terminable offense.

what were these people thinking????

dang, i love george as well.

but i'd much rather love him outside of the hospital, when he's healed, able and willing. :)

leslie

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Specializes in Community, OB, Nursery.

dang, i love george as well.

but i'd much rather love him outside of the hospital, when he's healed, able and willing. :)

Leslie -- I was wondering when you were going to find this thread!:balloons:

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Leslie -- I was wondering when you were going to find this thread!:balloons:

:D:roll:cheers:

steph

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George can sure induce palpitations, that's for sure. But I'm sure nothing compared to those experienced by this hospital's HR and attorneys once they found out of this.

"fines up to $250,000 and/or imprisonment up to 10 years for knowing misuse of individually identifiable health information"

Whoa. I hope the Enquirer paid really well...

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Specializes in 5 yrs OR, ASU Pre-Op 2 yr. ER.

They shoulda gotten fired.

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Specializes in Med/surg,Tele,PACU,ER,ICU,LTAC,HH,Neuro.

This reminds me of the day after Marc Morial was elected to his first term as mayor of New Orleans. The Times-Picayune had a ER record with his name on it being treated for a SUPPOSED cocaine OD, posted on the FRONT PAGE!!!!!!

I wrote Mayor Morial, the Times-Picayune, the attorney general and all nine congressmen about this and canceled my subscription to the paper. Nothing was done. If they can do it in the name of politics, they can do it Mr Average JOE.

They had held this document two days and put it on the front page AFTER the election??? They claimed it was the PEOPLE"S RIGHT TO KNOW??? Why didn't they tell us before we voted???

No wonder he won two terms and tried to get the law changed to run a third.

http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9C02E6DD1F3CF934A15750C0A962958260&n=Top%2fReference%2fTimes%20Topics%2fPeople%2fM%2fMorial%2c%20Marc%20H%2e

As far as I am concerned that ER RECORD is a forgery, I don't care what Mercy Baptist, nurses or doctors had to say about it.

I have cared for famous, well known, people in their homes. Nobody has the right to know who it was or why it was.

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Specializes in Med/Surg, Geriatrics.

I agree with those who state that IF the people involved did indeed access Mr. Clooney's records inappropiately, then they should have fired and not just suspended. I think it was very generous of Mr. Clooney to state that he didn't want to see them fired but they should be gone for blatant stupidity if nothing else.

However, I would also like to add that of those initially charged less than 7 of them were nurses and as it turns out they may have had authorization to access the records. I wonder if the hospital was overzealous in its attempts to protect Mr. Clooney and thus their own butts?

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I used to wonder what the big deal with this guy was. I never thought he was all that.

But that was before I saw this movie called Oh Brother where Art Thou? and realized, he's really handsome.

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dr's were suspended too... wow.. the heck with the records .. i would go see george... who cares about his CT scan.. i want to see him... what a hunk.. i don't know why they didn't john doe him on admit.. we have had a couple famous people and they come in as john doe.

The news article that I read said that no doctors were suspended.

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Big props to George Clooney for being such a nice guy about this but I am still outraged. Especially since these records were leaked to the press. I still cannot understand how people consider a 4 week suspension appropriate. I also cannot understand why they have not been charged with a HIPAA violation as this is what it was designed for.

The union rep is out of touch with reality. These staff got off extremely easy. Not only should they have been fired, they also should have faced the consequences of HIPAA which include fines and jail time. Leaking medical information to the press is an absolute travesty. Of course the incident should be investigated completely to ensure no innocent staff were charged unfairly.

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I'm wondering if this won't be the end of it, and the various licensing boards and the state's attorney has got wind of it and will investigate.

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