Lora Pabst of the Star Tribune reported this a few weeks ago:
As his 22-year marriage was falling apart, a doctor was desperate for information about his estranged family. Court records show that his wife wouldn’t return his phone calls. His oldest daughter refused to see him before she moved away college. He couldn’t even find out why his teenage son was seeing a physical therapist.
Locked out of his home and ignored by his loved ones, the doctor, a prominent university researcher, took matters into his own hands. He used his position at the university to peek into the medical records of his wife and two teenage daughters a dozen times in 2008 and 2009, university and other records show.
The state Board of Medical Practice investigated but did not discipline him.
His wife says that after a while, she had become suspicious that he was actually obtaining information on them and that
Her suspicions were confirmed when she got letters notifying her of the privacy breaches from the university and health services where family members were treated.
In response to this breach, the doctor’s access to medical records was monitored for six months and he was disciplined internally.
Updated May 2015: The preceding post was edited to redact names after this site learned that the original source had removed the article upon which this post was based because of concerns that one of the parties was using the media to make trouble for the other as part of a nasty divorce.
Absolutely he should have been fired! The only thing saving his job is the amount of money he brings in to the University through research grants. Obviously he is buying his job.