James T. Mulder reports a follow-up on a very disturbing patient privacy breach:
A nurse who took photos of an unconscious [SUNY] Upstate University Hospital patient’s penis with her smart phone has turned in her nursing license.
The state Education Department announced it has approved a request from Kristen Johnson, 27, of Fulton to surrender her license.
In a signed consent agreement, Johnson did not contest a charge that she practiced nursing with moral unfitness.
Johnson was arrested in May of 2015 after a nine-month investigation.
[…]
In addition to photographing the male patient’s genitals, Johnson used her iPhone 5 to take a video of another nurse cleaning an incapacitated female patient’s gastrointestinal blood clot, according to court papers.
Read more on Syracuse.com. The felony charges were reduced to one misdemeanor charge of disseminating unlawful surveillance in the plea deal that also requires her to spend three years on probation.
Ms. Johnson was a registered professional nurse. Her NYS license was first issued in October, 2009.
And yes, I’d agree that she practiced nursing with moral unfitness. Can you imagine being the patients and finding out that she’d taken photos of you and shared them with others? Kudos to the colleagues who reported her.
DataBreaches.net has sent an inquiry to the hospital to ask about any changes they’ve made in the wake of this incident and/or HHS investigation. What were the lessons learned here? More on that in another post if they reply.