Did nurse violate federal law on MySpace?

MySpace gripe about patient sparks federal privacy complaint:

I can greatly identify with this story because in my real life I’ve worked in the healthcare industry for the past 2 decades. However, this is also yet another example of nothing being private on the internet.

Stephanie Sicilia works for an OB/GYN office. That’s a gynecologist for you not in the know. And as everyone does in the healthcare industry she complained about her patients. Her mistake was is that she posted it on her MySpace.

In one item posted to her MySpace blog in late 2007, Sicilia, then 29, referred to patients at the practice as “the tramp troop,” saying of one: “her stories are entertaining but I’ve only slept with as many people as she has had abortions.” In another post, she mocked a patient who had asked where she could buy the gingerbread cookies the doctor had recommended to remedy nausea, writing: “SOME WOMEN SHOULD NEVER REPRODUCE!!!!”

While I currently work in a different field than Ms. Sicilia I can definitely commiserate with her. However, with those posts, she may have broken a very serious law in our industry known as HIPAA. In a nustshell, HIPAA defines how a patient’s information needs to be protected. For at least 5 years or more HIPAA has been drilled into our heads with the threat of possible jail time if a patient’s private information is compromised. Since you’re reading this here you can guess what happened to Ms. Sicilia.

One of the patients she wrote about says she recognized herself in Sicilia’s post and says the other person was a friend of hers. Even though she did not name the patients she could be facing some serious legal ramifications. According to the Ars Technica article, only one practice has ever been fined for violating HIPAA but it’s only a matter of time before the Dept. of Health and Human Services makes an example out of someone.