Boatright v. Crozer-Keystone Health Sys. – July 2015 (Summary)

NEGLIGENT DISCLOSURE OF MEDICAL INFORMATION

Boatright v. Crozer-Keystone Health Sys., Civil Action No. 14-7041 (E.D. Pa. July 24, 2015)

The United States District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania denied a health system and others’ motion to dismiss a patient’s claim for compensatory and punitive damages for negligent, unlawful disclosure of private medical information which allegedly resulted in the patient’s suspension and demotion in his employment.

The patient was an employee of the New Jersey Police Department and was involved in a motor vehicle accident. Shortly after the accident, the director of the emergency department and an emergency room nurse allegedly disclosed the patient’s private medical information to the patient’s superior officers without the patient’s knowledge or consent. The patient’s supervisors arrived at the hospital. The patient filed a complaint with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Office of Civil Rights (“OCR”), which concluded that the director and emergency room nurse impermissibly disclosed the patient’s protected health information to his employer.

The defendants sought to dismiss the patient’s punitive damages claims by arguing, among other things, that there were insufficient facts to support an inference of reckless disregard for the rights of the patient. The court was not persuaded because the patient’s claims were sufficiently detailed. The court also concluded that at this stage of the proceedings the defendants were not entitled to a presumption that the patient’s supervisors showed up at the hospital out of concern for the patient’s condition (as opposed to the unauthorized disclosure). Finally, the court refused to strike portions of the pleadings that referred to the OCR’s administrative hearing on the matter because factual findings from the OCR’s investigation could potentially be admissible at trial.