as anyone that has worked in a hospital i have many anecdotes to share over a dinner but hospital personel that leaks private info for the LULZ is simply unacceptable.

this is not a case of private medical records of particular interest used for research. in Italy and i guess everywhere in the civilized world medics have the right to use anonymous records for research reasons. this kind of permit does not give blanket licence for fart jokes on facebook.

people are freaked out as it is going to the doctor. undermining respect and trust in medicine is a huge issue.

It was reported in the news that a woman had to go to the emergency room because of a vaccuum cleaner handle lodged in a private spot. Claimed she fell down the stairs onto it. Snicker snicker. Yeah right.

But someone I knew said he saw the x-ray. The handle was lodged almost up to her lungs! Terrible injury. Poor woman really had fallen, but lack of details made everyone think something else.

It’s still a violation of patient confidentiality. If not HIPPA, the nurse licensing authority in Wisconsin probably has rules regarding this.

by coincidence just yesterday in Italy 2 medics and a journalist got criminally charged for taking fotos of eluana inglaro just before she died (inglaro was a girl that was in coma for 17 years similar to the terri schiavo case)

http://www.ilgiornale.it/a.pic1?ID=331627

I fail to see a privacy scandal here (assuming that the patient’s name was obscured when posting the x-ray online).

Unfortunately, he forgot zat here in Germany ve use 220-volt electrical current. Our surgeons did all zey could, but it took zem 4 hours just to get ze smile off his face.”

Posting something on the internet is a no going back situation, you can’t put the toothpaste back in the tube. I have screengrabbed a ton of stuff I knew would not be there later, just so I can have it to refer to. Guaranteed those x-ray images have been grabbed by some curious person who knew better.

Facebook doesn’t care about your content. Your content isn’t necessarily worth money to marketers. Facebook cares about your personal data, which is.

My mother has had a caregiver violate her HIPPA rights on consequential matters; someone got fired; they should have.

These nurses should have had more self control.

That said, I’m dying to see these pictures!

when in a hospital privacy is relative. i mean if someone looks at the internal of your colon you should at least trust him. no “violations” here. if you don’t want to be probed and asked questions go to your local witch doctor.

it may sound cruel but a swollen foot and a comic fall is nothing in the grand scheme of things. medics have to lose common sensibility if they are to do their job properly. if you panick over a swollen foot what would you do when you see a car crash victim? yeah a slapstick fall is probably a relief after a day of life and death situations (and mind boggling bureaucracy).

and yes nurses will talk behind your back specially if you are a douchebag or cute (yeah they are not always negative in their comments). but that does not mean that they can update their facebook profiles with your xrays.

this is whats called argument from ignorance. or argument from personal incredulity at best. I think lots of things are probably certain ways but its a lousy way to ascertain the truth of something.

Gallows humor is also seen quite often on emergency scenes – it’s supposed to relieve stress.

What there *was* was a breach of good manners, good taste, and nursing ethics in that the photos were taken only for puerile entertainment value. Actions like that cause blanket photography bans which make collecting images for teaching purposes difficult or impossible.

A weapon of ass destruction perhaps?

That notwithstanding, it is the preservation of content that could verify that a law might have been broken, not their personal info.

http://clinicalcases.org/2002/01/case-reports-and-hipaa-rules.html

Crummy, embarassing, and unprofessional? Yes.
Grounds for termination? Up to the hospital.
Illegal? It doesn’t look like it.

No laws were broken. Unless hospital rules were broken, these nurses broke no laws.

One does not require authorization from the patient to post on the internet if none of these 18 Identifiers are present

The Happy Hospitalist”

#2 If you are posting the picture to your facebook, your friends know where you live and/or work thus revealing the geographical location.

#3 If she was discussing when this occurred or was a mobile update, there’s two!