WISN – Milwaukee reported yesterday that two nurses from Mercy Walworth Medical Center in Lake Geneva were fired after allegedly posting pictures of a patient’s x-ray on Facebook. The man had presented himself to the ER with a “sex toy” lodged in his rectum and apparently the nurses found it so amusing that they chose to take pictures using their phones and load them onto their facebook profiles.
This was another image found online. Apparently these two are not the only ones...
The local authorities didn’t find any evidence to charge the two, and have referred the case to the FBI for potential HIPAA/Patient’s rights violations.
You can find the full story here:
http://www.wisn.com/cnn-news/18796315/detail.html
While no Protected Health Information (PHI) was apparently revealed, therefore potentially dodging any formal HIPAA violation, it was definately unethical and something had to happen. With increased use of social networking sites such as Facebook and MySpace, I am surprised that there haven’t been more cases of stuff like this.
Two questions for you to consider:
1) Have you ever seen or heard of anything like this at your facility?
2) Do you think it was right to fire the nurses even though they didn’t reveal any patient information?
Modality, Inc. announced that a Saunders Q & A application for the NCLEX-RN Exam is now available from the Apple App Store. The new iPhone and iPod touch application, developed through a partnership with medical publisher Elsevier and based on the bestselling Saunders flash card set, aids students in preparing for the National Council Licensure Examination for Registered Nurses.
Aaron
thinksclear13
Steve
Steph
