3 fired, 2 suspended in football player-UIHC breach
University of Iowa officials are in the process of firing three staff members and suspending two others without pay for five days for their roles in inappropriately accessing electronic medical records of 13 UI football players who were in the hospital.
The unidentified players were being treated for rhabdomyolysis, a rare muscle disorder.
UI spokesman Tom Moore declined to identify the names of the staff members, what information they accessed or how it was used, citing federal and institutional privacy laws and policies.
Category: Iowa Hawkeyes Football
Why would educated people be so stupid as to do this? I’ve always wondered what the thrill was to them. now you have to go home and tell your family you lost your job for being stupid and nosey.
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Anyone working in the medical field understands HIPAA regulations…these people deserve what they are getting.
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I’m not being critical of your comment. I don’t understand HIPAA. I know of a story where a man had to come up with a lengthy set of codes to use while calling the hospital’s ICU his mom was in. That way the nurse on duty knew it was him. (The hospital was a distance from the man’s home, hence the calls.) At the same time, a woman walked right into the same ICU unit and was never asked by anyone who she was or why she was visiting the woman. (It was another relative). We know everything about VP Cheney’s health conditions, but nothing about these football guys. Not everyone is treated the same way under HIPAA, but everyone’s medical records and conditions are supposed to be protected by HIPAA. HIPAA is awful.
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As your name states, Opinion.
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I believe if you release your medical records to the press or media they can report them, the whole reason these people are getting fired and suspended is the players did not release this information, therefore it violates their HIPAA rights. HIPAA is not awful, your explanation was awful, people have every right in the world not to have their medical records spread everywhere if they don’t want them to be released.
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HIPAA is a law that regulates how and where your personal information can be accessed. Do you want anybody knowing that you have the Clap? Hipaa regulates the flow of information. Should hospital staff know that your grandmother has days to live? Not if they are the underpaid janitorial staff. Only if they are the caregivers or designated family. This also keeps unsavory family from knowing that she is dying and stealing all her stuff while the rest of the family is grieving at her bedside. HIPAA isn’t perfect. but it is more perfect than what was in place before. Besides, Cheney was a leader of our country. Basically it is good P.R. for the people to know what is going on and nothing was released without his consent. To work in health care, they signed a statement, as did I stating that they know there is a penalty for inappropriate use or access to that information. They blew it over curiosity..
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[...] permalink University of Iowa officials are in the process of firing three staff members and suspending two others without pay for five days for their roles in inappropriately accessing electronic medical records of 13 UI football players who were in the hospital. The unidentified players were being treated for rhabdomyolysis, a rare muscle disorder. 3 fired, 2 suspended in football player-UIHC breach | Hawk Central [...]
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5 people were fired or suspended for looking up what it blatantly states in the 2nd paragraph of this story, publicized, for all to see.
Go figure.
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To opinion, you are completely entitled to your opinion but HIPAA Laws are in place to safe guard against outsiders getting their hands on the private records of people. The story you mentioned I’ve heard of that type of thing and yes its messed up how hospitals are tighter on phone calls than on personal visits.
In this case though durring the season the players injury/health status’ are released to the public because they have signed a release form but as soon as the season is over that is no longer in effect and a new one is signed each year. so right now the each players health is his private business. We know former VP Cheneys health because he is/was a public official his health conditions were made public knowledge by choice not because of some nurses or doctors digging through files without permission. As we’ve seen in the news there have only been 4 or so players come out about their condition, the rest are still referred to as “players”. and probably will until they choose to release it themselves, if at all.
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To, th1123, um NO.. the people getting fired or suspended are being punished because they ILLIGALLY ACCESSED PERSONAL RECORDS not because they said anything or stated anything about the condition of the players. AND the 2nd paragraph you are talking about reads, “The unidentified players were being treated for rhabdomyolysis, a rare muscle disorder” it DOES NOT MENTION NAMES OR MAKE PERSONAL REFRENCES TO THE PLAYERS THEMSELVES. Each of these 5 people took an Oath when they completed their schooling and training part of that oath is to not ILLEGALLY ACCESS or release any information of a patients that they don’t have permission to do so. They did it they pay the price for their actions..
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[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by DMRsports, Hawkeye Sports Now. Hawkeye Sports Now said: 3 fired, 2 suspended in football player-UIHC breach http://bit.ly/gDmWqn #Hawkeye [...]
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So they fire or suspend people for trying to see what the truth is, but do nothing to those that were responsible for the over-training resulting in the actual medical condition.
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wdmguy1 they were not fired and suspended for trying to see what the truth is. This happened because they violated HIPPA. If you think they had a right to the information, I want yours. Please have all your personal information faxed to……..
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I think wdmguy1 is missing the point!
Tr2hawkfan, nicely put! Way to drop the boom on him the way you did, I think everyone needs to look at it that way and hopefully he and everyone else commenting like that will understand the point.
If not, oh well you tried my man!
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Funny thing is you both missed my point but not surprising you immediately got defensive. Point being, they can fire people within hours just for looking at some records, but it takes *90 DAYS* to ‘investigate’ why the players ended up there in the first place. Let alone actually hold anyone accountable for it, which is unlikely. Especially liked the ‘drop the boom’ comment though, made me laugh.
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It’s very EASY to find out who accessed records: computer access codes, interviews, etc.
However, finding out what caused 13 completely different human beings (yes, all football players/athletes, but that’s it) to react so negatively to a workout used 3 times before without any incidents DOES take time, study, investigation, and hopefully someday a reason. Until/if that time comes, you can be bitter about Doyle and Ferentz all you want, but they ain’t goin’ nowhere’s.
Now, if you’d like to respond as a pragmatic adult rather than knee-jerk, bitter teen then please do so. I’d love to continue. If not, please troll somewhere else.
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I get your point but it is only an opinion and a terrible one at that because you are comparing holding someone accountable for a violating HIPPA to not holding someone accountable for the reason the players were in the hospital is completely different things. Yes it shouldn’t take 90 days but besides that this investigation came from the hospital because it involved patient records, the investigation into what happened to the players is coming from the school and I believe and outside investigative team also. The hospital has to make sure all medical records and the rights of patients are protected, if you feel different that is YOUR PROBLEM. I agree they need to hold someone accountable but until THAT investigation is done you are just assuming that no one will be held accountable which is fine since you seem to only care that they haven’t been held accountable but are unwilling to wait until the truth comes out and let me guess you think this will be covered up too?
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