Health News

Hospital Staff In Trouble For Photographing Patient’s Genitals

Photo from Pixabay

Hospital staff taking photos of patients’ genitals makes headlines again, this time at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center’s Bedford Memorial Hospital.

A whole crowd had gathered to snap pictures and record videos of an unconscious patient’s genitals that had a foreign object protrusion, The Washington Post reports. One staffer described it as “a ton” of people, according to the Pennsylvania’s Department of Health and Human Services.

A doctor at the hospital remarked,

At one point when I looked up, there were so many people it looked like a cheerleader type pyramid.

This severe breach of privacy has led to the suspension of one doctor for a period of 28 days, another suspended doctor for a week, and the removal of the surgical services nursing director, following an investigation into the matter.

The report listed multiple violations that occurred during the incident, including failure to protect a patient’s confidentiality and privacy, allowing non-essential staff to enter the operating room, and permitting the use of personal devices to take photos and videos of the patient, much more, of the genitals.

The incident happened on December 23, 2016. The next month, the report stated that “a hospital employee came forward to complain about photographs that were circulating around the hospital of a patient under anesthesia while in the [operating room].”

Physicians and staff who were interviewed during the investigation cited various reasons for their presence in the operating room on the said date. One doctor claimed the need for photographic evidence for medical research purposes.

“We have a camera in the [operating room] for that purpose, but it was reportedly broken and so personal phones were used. Initially, we thought there was only one picture taken but later we learned of others,” the report said. The camera turned out to be working, but was deemed “too complicated to use.”

Another employee stated “sheer curiosity” as the reason for participating in the incident. Regarding the injury, the person said, “I was doing a tendon repair, when someone, I don’t remember who, one of the OR staff, came into the room and said that there was a patient in the ER with a genital injury. I thought, ‘How does this happen?’ I couldn’t imagine how the patient did it.”

The hospital’s network stated that the behavior in the case was “abhorrent” and that the patient had been informed of what happened. The hospital took further steps to address the issue by circulating a memo on privacy policies and retraining its employees.

 

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