Healthcare providers are required by law to maintain the privacy of most patient information, and there are good business reasons for medical practices to protect patients' personal information. In a recent case, a medical practice group found itself unwittingly having to disclose what it considered to be private information of its patients in order to defend a lawsuit brought by former employees. Peace v. Premier Primary Care Physicians, S.C.
Overtime Pay and Retaliation Claims
Wendy Vera and Suzanne Peace, two former employees of Premier
Primary Care, sued the operators of that suburban medical facility
(the doctors) for overtime wages and retaliation. Regarding the
retaliation claim, the doctors maintained that they had terminated
Vera and Peace for a legitimate reason – poor job
performance. When they terminated the two women, the doctors gave
them letters outlining the specific problems with their
performance, including: "Patients have complained that you are
rude and unhelpful to them on the phone and when they are at the
office." The doctors did not identify the patients who made
the complaints.
Patient-Privacy Predicament
During the discovery phase of the lawsuit, Peace and Vera sought
the names and contact information of Premier's patients, as
well as office schedules showing patient names and appointment
times. The ex-employees wanted to interview the patients who were
alleged to have complained about them or were alleged to have
witnessed their unprofessional behavior, in an effort to verify or
discredit the doctors' alleged reasons for terminating them.
The doctors refused to answer questions about the identity of
patients, arguing that their patients' privacy rights
outweighed the plaintiffs' interests in obtaining the
information.
Patient Contact Information Discoverable
A federal district court found the doctors' invocation of
their patients' privacy rights to be "odd," in light
of the fact that the doctors themselves had contacted several
"loyal" patients for help in discrediting the
employees' claims that they performed their jobs
satisfactorily. Since Vera and Peace sought only the patients'
contact information, and not their medical records or medical
information, the court found that any privacy concerns were
"minimal" and were outweighed by the employees'
rights to have the information relating to the reasons for their
terminations. The court directed Premier to provide the contact
information for 25 patients of the plaintiffs' choosing.
Takeaway for Healthcare Providers
This decision raises the question of how a healthcare provider can
maintain a defense while at the same time preserving the privacy of
patients who might not want to serve as witnesses in a dispute. If
the termination letter had not been so specific, perhaps the
court-ordered contact with individual patients could have been
averted. It did not help that the doctors themselves reached out to
certain patients to back their version of events.
The case serves as a good reminder to be consistent in handling patient-privacy issues and, when terminating a poor performer, carefully consider the extent to which you refer to patient information during the process. If patient information must be used, procedural mechanisms exist for doing so without violating patient rights or HIPAA privacy rules. Let us know if you'd like additional information.
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