Sometimes it’s hard to wrap my head around the fact the hospital employees engage in egregious privacy and confidentiality violations. Christine Stuart of Courthouse News reports on a lawsuit against Saint Raphael Healthcare System .
The lawsuit alleges that in June, 2011, a Hospital of St. Raphael employee used his cellphone to take a picture of the corpse of Travis Washington, a 17 year-old gunshot victim. The employee then allegedly texted the picture to other employees, who may have shared it with others.
Thomas MacMillan of The New Haven Independent reports:
Although Washington was unidentifiable in the photo, the making of the picture violated the hospital’s patient privacy policy, hospital spokeswoman Liese Klein said at the time. St. Raphael’s fired three employees and gave others written warnings.
The hospital recovered images in the course of its investigation, all of which were deleted, Klein said. “To the best of our knowledge, there were no Internet or social media postings of the image.”
Barber, Williams’ attorney, said it remains to be seen if the image was posted online anywhere: “We have reason to believe that did in fact happen.” He said that information will come out during the process of discovery.
The New Haven Independent provides links to additional coverage of the case.