As we think about this case of unethical behavior, we might wonder if it is about human nature or even boredom on an otherwise quiet night in a hospital. We might also wonder if the incident was an aberration; that it almost never happens and on this particular night, it was just a case of staff craziness.
The second question is more easily answered, and it is troubling. For just a few days after the first incident, nurses at Denver Health Medical Center were reported – and disciplined – for opening the body bag of a newly deceased male for the sole purpose of viewing his genitals. They apparently then called in other nurses to view the man’s genitals as well. HIPPA Violation? Who Cares, this is fun!
HIPPA Violation
As to the first of the two incidents reported that week, it involved a patient at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center. I don’t know the details, nor do I need to know, but it was some kind of unusual genital injury. Apparently, the injury so unusual, word got out across the hospital and apparently, there was a “crowd” of nurses and doctors “lined up at the door” of the operating room. While the patient was undergoing a procedure, numerous pictures of the man’s genitals were taken on personal cell phones.
The images had no medical justification and were widely shared. It has been said that some employees tried to stop the picture taking and apparently, someone said:
“Stop, this is a HIPAA violation.”
The crowd could not be held back. Someone then reasoned that since it was a “medical anomaly,” that they could come back once the patient was asleep. Of course, whether the patient was awake or asleep was not important to the HIPPA laws, the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act.
The hospital administration learned what had happened and they in turn, informed the Pennsylvania Department of Health. The hospital’s CEO initially issued a seven-day suspension to the attending physician. He was in charge of the scene and he could have done something and instead he turned it into a side show. The attending physician was forced to take additional HIPPA training. Another physician who was in the room as part of the picture taking free-for-all, was suspended about a month and was also forced into training.
It is impossible to know how many staff members took how many pictures and where those images have now been uploaded. Obviously, once an image finds its way into cyber-space, it is never really lost.
Point of View
To the staff members of both hospitals, it was “fun” to view genitals and take pictures. That was the human nature part. We tend to sometimes forget that physicians and nurses are also people. However, they were people “on the job.”
The staffs were bound by HIPPA laws. To the relatives of the deceased in one case, and to the patient in the other case, I am fairly certain it was not a joke. Then again, it is interesting to speculate what the reaction of staff members might have been had the patient been a nude, 17-year-old woman found deceased or a popular actress having plastic surgery? The same HIPPA laws would have applied, of course. 
In fact, the HIPPA laws don’t know age, gender, procedure, or any other parameter. They understand privacy, and the right to privacy guaranteed by law.
I often talk about concepts such as a lack of oversight, opportunity, need and rationalization as contributors to unethical behavior. These scandals were not about money unless, potentially, someone would have paid for the pictures. However, they were certainly linked to a lack of oversight.
At issue here, most specifically, the justification behind their actions that must be called into question. The nurses gathering around an open body bag rationalized that as he was deceased, it was OK to view his body and make comments. As for the patient undergoing a procedure, staff somehow justified that taking pictures was “medical” rather than mocking and prurient. The fact that in both cases penalties were imposed upon the staff by the authorities was proof that no amount of rationalization can justify unethical behavior.
Both of these scandals are linked to a lack of ethics. It is sad that despite all of the education and training of those involved, their lack of ethics put them on a par with small children who had not been taught right from wrong. HIPPA Violation? Who Cares, this is fun!
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