General

Richard Collier’s Med Records Worth Your Job?

Nov 2, 2008, 5:00 PM UTC

â†µThis year has been a bumper crop in the “hospital employees â†µgetting fired for looking up the medical records of â†µcelebrities” industry. The UCLA Medical Center had a major scandal last spring when an â†µadministrative assistant was found to have rifled through â†µthe records of 61 celebrities, including Britney Spears and â†µMrs. Arnold Schwarzenegger.
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â†µBut this Jacksonville case â†µtakes the crown in terms of sheer reach: a local TV outfit â†µreports 20 hospital workers have been fired foâ†µr peering into the medical records of Jaguars tackle â†µRichard Collier, who took 14 bullets in early â†µSeptember.â†µâ†µâ‡¥Channel 4 learned this week that 20 Shands â†µâ‡¥employees accused of compromising Collier’s medical records â†µâ‡¥were recently fired for violating the Health Insurance â†µâ‡¥Portability and Accountability Act, commonly called PIPAA. â†µâ‡¥PIPAA’s rules are designed to protect patients medical â†µâ‡¥records.
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â†µâ‡¥A union representative for the employees confirmed that the â†µâ‡¥workers -- admissions personnel, nurses and patient â†µâ‡¥relations staff -- were accused of looking at Collier’s â†µâ‡¥medical file in the computer system.â†µâ†µWhile patient privacy is obviously of utmost import, â†µcanning this many staffers for a spot of curiosity seems â†µrash. You think bank tellers don’t search celebrity â†µaccounts to see how loaded they are? Do you think before â†µmedical records began leaving a digital trail employees â†µdidn’t peek through? I’m not sure what the employees would â†µbe seeking to learn through Coller’s file, but I’m also not â†µsure why we all look at car crashes or follow the Raiders.â†µ

This post originally appeared on the Sporting Blog. For more, see The Sporting Blog Archives.

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