Termination of employee for accessing EHR deemed unfair labor practice

[Omaha Steve]

Very good ruling by an Administrative Law Judge!

http://www.fierceemr.com/story/termination-employee-accessing-ehr-deemed-unfair-labor-practice/2015-07-24

July 24, 2015 | By Marla Durben Hirsch

Missoula Montana-based Rocky Mountain Eye Center is fighting a ruling that terminating an employee for improper access to its electronic health record is an unfair labor practice under the National Labor Relations Act.

Employee Britta Brown had accessed the EHR to obtain the contact information of 17 coworkers and provided the information of 12 of them to a union representative as part of a union organizing campaign. Rocky Mountain terminated her on the grounds that she committed a HIPAA violation and violated the practice's confidentiality agreement.

The administrative law judge (ALJ) found, among other things, that while Rocky Mountain had kept personnel files in a separate software system, it comingled patient and employee contact information in its Centricity EHR even if the employees were not patients by having employees input their contact information into the EHR as part of EHR training. The judge also found that Rocky Mountain condoned the use of the EHR as an employee directory.

This is yet another example of how EHRs are creating new legal issues and can have unintended legal effects.

FULL story at link.