[BreachExchange] Maine hospital employees hid 'wall of shame' that displayed patient records

[Destry Winant]

https://www.beckershospitalreview.com/legal-regulatory-issues/maine-hospital-employees-hid-wall-of-shame-that-displayed-patient-records.html

Employees at Lewiston, Maine-based St. Mary's Regional Medical Center
created a "wall of shame" that targeted patients with disabilities,
according to an investigation by the Maine Human Rights Commission and
cited by Bangor Daily News.

A former hospital employee, MyKayla McCann, alerted the human rights
commission filing claims of a hostile work environment and HIPAA
violations. Ms. McCann said she was among the patients whose records
were posted on the "wall of shame."

St. Mary's Regional Medical Center said it removed the wall within
"weeks" despite Ms. McCann's claim that the hospital's administrator
took months to take action. In a statement to Becker's Hospital
Review, the hospital said it took immediate action to investigate and
address Ms. McCann's concerns.

"Covenant Health and St. Mary's Regional Health System does not
tolerate or condone discrimination or harassment of any kind, for any
reason. We do not tolerate any violation of our patients' privacy or
medical records. We deeply regret that this situation occurred [back
in 2016], and we sincerely apologize for the impact this situation has
had on Ms. McCann," Covenant Health said in a statement.

Ms. McCann said she found the wall of patient records on the inside of
a cabinet door in June 2015 when she started working as a laboratory
technician at the hospital. Patient medical records had been cut and
taped to the door, which "included information detailing patients'
sexual activity, genital dysfunction, bowel movements, bodily oders
and other personal maladies," the investigation found.

St. Mary's Regional Medical Center's parent company Covenant Health
conducted an investigation and determined that no patient data was
breached.

Ms. McCann alerted her supervisor in September 2016 that she thought
coworkers were wrongfully looking at her medical records since she was
a patient at St. Mary's Regional Medical Center. Upon investigation,
the hospital determined that six to eight employees reviewed Ms.
McCann's records. It wasn't until December 2016 that St. Mary's
Regional Medical Center disciplined two employees for improperly
viewing the records.

In January 2017, Ms. McCann resigned "due to the hostile work
environment and the numerous HIPAA violations," that she reported.
Prior to her leaving, she said she took a picture of the "wall of
shame," to indicate the hospital had left it up despite her
complaints.

"Coworkers constructed a workplace display ridiculing patients with
disabilities. [Ms. McCann] encountered the display every day as part
of her regular environment, making harassment pervasive," the report
said. "The information posted on Shame Wall was intended to demean and
humiliate and include supposed 'jokes' about the hospital's physically
and mentally disabled patients."

The report found St. Mary's Regional Medical Center took corrective
action to allow Ms. McCann to continue to work after she expressed her
concerns. However, the Maine Human Rights Commission found that taking
three to four months to investigate and remove the patient records was
an "unacceptable delay."

"An incident such as this weight heavily on the St. Mary's family of
employees," said Steven Jorgensen, president of St. Mary's Health
System. "However, I have every confidence that our health system will
continue to respond to all employee issues in a manner that promotes
human value while honoring our core values of compassion and
integrity. On behalf of the entire St. Mary's family, we are making
every effort to learn from this incident and to ensure this type of
behavior never occurs again."