Financial disputes may underlie some vendors retaining patient or client data – as in the Kaiser Permanente/Surefile Filing Systems case I’ve blogged about on this site or the Irvine Scientific breach I described on DataBreaches.net. But there are other possible motivations for not relinquishing or taking data as well. Maura Lerner of the Star Tribune reports on a case in Minnesota where an employee took copies of records home and kept them, allegedly as proof of wrongdoing by the hospital:
Three years ago, Barbara Peterson walked out of Woodwinds Hospital in Woodbury with more than 200 pages of confidential patient files.
On that much, everyone agrees.
Now those files are at the heart of a federal lawsuit, in which Peterson accuses the hospital of trying to cover up evidence of medical misconduct.
Peterson, who was a patient advocate at Woodwinds, claims that she was ordered to destroy notes and e-mails about incidents that could damage the hospital’s reputation — including an allegation that a doctor was drunk while delivering a baby. She says she took the documents home to protect them.
The hospital says that her version of events “simply did not happen.” And it accuses Peterson of violating patient privacy by walking off with — and refusing to return — hospital records. Woodwinds fired her in 2010 before the missing documents came to light.
Read more on Star Tribune.
And of course, to the extent the hospital had no idea that files had been removed or what was in them, they would have no idea whom to notify, and probably still wouldn’t if Peterson hadn’t sued them over her termination.
I’ve uploaded Peterson’s lawsuit and affidavit, as well as the hospital’s response. The case is Peterson v. Healtheast Woodwinds Hospital, 0:12-cv-00327-JNE-FLN.