CHARLESTON – A Kanawha County woman says a CAMC employee wrongfully accessed her medical records on multiple occasions.
The woman, identified only as E.O., filed her complaint October 25 in Kanawha Circuit Court against Charleston Area Medical Center Inc.
She also claims the CAMC employee who accessed her records currently is in a relationship with a former partner of E.O. because the former partner began sending her harassing messages on social media with content that referenced recent lab work she had done.
diTrapano
“The conduct by CAMC in this case constitutes the ultimate betrayal of trust,” attorney L. Dante diTrapano told The West Virginia Record. “As patients at CAMC, the expectation is that personal medical information will be kept private and used only for the care and treatment of that patient.
“Our client suffered the humiliating experience of having her very personal and sensitive laboratory results shared via social media to the public. This is a tragic situation and we intend to hold CAMC accountable.”
According to the complaint, E.O. had lab work done at CAMC related to a viral illness on January 8. On January 23, a CAMC employee whose role is listed as “Perioperative – Scheduler” accessed her electronic medical record without authorization or a business need to do so, the complaint states.
“The user searched on a person record and viewed detailed information for that person record,” the audit trail shows, also saying the employee “viewed patient or encounter level demographics.”
On February 13, E.O. had additional lab work done at CAMC that showed she had an infection. On June 17, the same CAMC employee again accessed the plaintiff’s medical records, according to the complaint.
“Shortly thereafter, plaintiff began receiving harassing messages via Snapchat from a former relationship partner,” the complaint states. “The content of these messages suggested to plaintiff that this former partner (who is believed to be in a current relationship with the CAMC employee in question) had been told about plaintiff’s recent lab work.”
On August 19, E.O. received a letter from Debbie Boland, a privacy officer in the CAMC Privacy Office telling her a “workforce member” had accessed her medical records without a business need to do so on January 23 and June 17.
“After discovering this information from CAMC, plaintiff reasonably believed that the CAMC employee in question not only wrongfully accessed plaintiff’s electronic records, but then shared plaintiff’s protected health information with others – specifically including plaintiff’s former partner.”
Because of the employee’s actions, E.O. says she has suffered targeted harassment as well as severe emotional and mental trauma, anxiety, depression, annoyance, embarrassment, humiliation and loss of enjoyment of life. E.O. also says she believes the employee still has her same job at CAMC.
E.O. accuses CAMC of negligence, vicarious liability, invasion of privacy and strict liability. She seeks compensatory damages, punitive damages, pre- and post-judgment interests, court costs, attorney fees and other relief.
She is being represented by diTrapano and David H. Carriger of Calwell Luce diTrapano in Charleston. The case has been assigned to Circuit Judge Maryclaire Akers.
Kanawha Circuit Court case number 24-C-1196