Arizona Hospital Workers Fired for Inappropriately Accessing Shooting Victim Records
Written by Dianne Bourque
Once again, a public event has piqued the "curiosity" of hospital employees in violation of HIPAA. The University Medical Center (UMC) at Tucson has fired three administrative staff and a contracted nurse for wrongfully accessing medical records related to the shooting rampage that killed six people and seriously injured Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords. All of the injured victims, including Congresswoman Giffords, are being treated at UMC.
The hospital notified the affected patients and/or their families of the breach and does not believe that any of the wrongfully-accessed medical information was further used or disclosed.
Press release available at http://www.azumc.com/
Author
Cynthia J. Larose
Member / Chair, Privacy & Cybersecurity Practice
Cynthia J. Larose is Chair of the firm's Privacy & Cybersecurity Practice, a Certified Information Privacy Professional-US (CIPP-US), and a Certified Information Privacy Professional-Europe (CIPP-E). She works with clients in various industries to develop comprehensive information security programs on the front end, and provides timely counsel when it becomes necessary to respond to a data breach.