Sask. health region employee who 'snooped' on 900+ records won't get job back

A Saskatchewantechnologist won't be getting her job backafter she was fired for "snooping" on hundreds of patient records without due cause, a breach of the Health Information Protection Act.

A recentlyreleasedlabour arbitrationdecisionshows that the employee who claimed she was looking at the records for"educational purposes" has been denied a union grievance request to have her job back and to receive compensation for her lost wages and benefits.

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The employeehad worked for the Heartland Regional Health Authority as aCombined Laboratory and X-ray Technologistin both Unity and Kindersley, Sask. since 1977.

The woman was fired from her position in August 2013, after it was found she accessed records 290 times since May that year, according to court documents. Many of the records were X-rays.

'It appears to me thegrievormaintained a consistent routine of random accesses out of sheer curiosity.'- William Hood, arbitrator

A full investigation by the health authority found the technologist had accessed as many as 991 patients' records since June of 2011, which was when a new digital Picture Archiving and Communication System was introduced.

The system keeps track of which employees access records, and under its policy states that healthcare providers may only access its data on a "need-to-know basis."

In the decision, the arbitrator called the number of patients affected by the employee's actions "astonishing."

"It appears to me the grievor maintained a consistent routine of random accesses out of sheer curiosity, casting a wide net over patients mostly unknown to her," arbitrator William Hood wrote.

Hood also said there was not a convincing explanation for why the employee engaged in the "repeated snooping behaviour."

Complaint from fellow technologist

The investigation was sparked by a complaint in July 2013 from a staff member in Unity, Sask., who said in a letter that she had felt "for a while now" that the employee was viewing her patients' X-ray images.

"By the times on the audit, it was clear that she was viewing images in batches," it said in the complaint letter, which was included in court documents.

The co-worker went on to say that she found that herhusband's images and her own images were also viewed by the employee.

Employee says she accessed for 'educational purposes'

During the employee's testimony, she said it had been her practice for the 35 years she had worked in the field to review images for educational purposes, according to court documents.

She said she would look at records during her "down time" to see if younger technologists were using new techniques.

In her initial hearing, the employee said she wasn't aware that heractions were wrong, since she never disclosed this information.

"I was aware that images I looked at had my fingerprint on it, and with that knowledge, I would not have intentionally put myself in harm's way if I believed it was wrong," she said in a letter read at a meeting with the health authority.

Later during her court testimony, the employee was questioned about a particular patient record that had been accessed 18 times in one day.

At first she testified that she had wanted to "delve into" it, but later said she may have been showing it to other people, although said she was "totally speculating" about her reasons for accessing it.

Final decisions on termination

A letter from the employer justifying the termination said it views "breach of confidential documents as an extremely serious offense and one that cannot be either undone or defended."

The arbitrator agreed with this in the final statements, and concluded that the employee "should have known" her actions were wrong.

"The public trust has been badly damaged by the grievor, and those patients who have had their privacy breached have been notified," Hood wrote.

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Patients whowere affected, who camefrom B.C. to Quebec, Yukon, the United States, Finland and Germany,were sent a letter notifying them their data had been breached.

Hood added that it would be hard for patients to restore their faith in the health authority if the employee wasn't fired, and it would send a bad message to other employees.

"The public would not stand for it as it would send the message that the employer does not take their privacy seriously," Hood said.

According to a press release, the region has brought other corrective measures forward since the employee was fired, including: reviewing and limiting the employees who have access to records; reviewing internal approval processes when new electronic systems are implemented; developing an auditing process and reviewing staff education.

The Heartland Health Region covers more than 41,000 square kilometres in west central Saskatchewan.