Sep 23, 2006 11:05 am US/Eastern
Hospital Workers Suspended For Peeking At Files
NEW YORK (CBS/AP) ―
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Nixzmary Brown was found dead on Jan. 11 in her home in Brooklyn's Bedford-Stuyvesant section.
AP
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Nixzmary Brown's stepfather, Cesar Rodriguez, and mother, Nixzaliz Santiago, have been charged in her death.
CBS
The city's public hospital system said it would suspend 39 employees without pay for peeking at the private medical records of a 7-year-old girl whose death from beatings and torture prompted an overhaul of New York's child welfare system.
The case of Nixzmary Brown became a tabloid and TV news sensation after she died in January, and dozens of workers at the Woodhull Medical and Mental Health Center in Brooklyn apparently couldn't resist looking at the child's computerized medical file.
Nixzmary had been treated at Woodhull before her death, but many of the people who later examined her records had not been involved in her care, city officials said.
"New Yorkers who depend on our public hospital system for their care have a right to the full protection of their medical privacy," Health and Hospitals Corp. President Alan D. Aviles said in a written statement.
He said he hoped the suspensions, which would range from 30 to 60 days, would illustrate that the organization had "zero tolerance for any such inappropriate accessing of patient records regardless of how prominent or little-known the patient may be."
The workers included nurses, doctors, technicians and some clerical staff. A few of the suspensions went into effect immediately, but a majority was delayed because the employees were union members and they are allowed an opportunity to appeal.
Each of the sanctioned employees will be required to undergo training in patient privacy rules before they return to work, the Health and Hospitals Corp. said.
Federal and state privacy laws protect patient records and medical providers are generally barred from accessing them unless they are involved in the individual's care.
The hospitals corporation said it began investigating who was accessing Nixzmary's records after noticing that her computer file had been viewed an unusually large number of times.
Nixzmary Brown was found dead on Jan. 11 in her home in Brooklyn's Bedford-Stuyvesant section. Her stepfather, Cesar Rodriguez, and mother, Nixzaliz Santiago, have been charged in her death.
Several employees at the city's child welfare agency were suspended after her death for failing to respond aggressively to reports of problems at the family's home.
(© 2006 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)
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