Man sues hospital for releasing blood-alcohol test, violating privacy laws
HIPAA Weekly Advisor, December 3, 2007
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A man previously arrested for drunk driving recently filed a lawsuit against Legacy Mount Hood Medical Center, in Gresham, OR for releasing his blood alcohol test results to local police, according to a November 16 article in The Oregonian.
Police arrested the man on April, 2006, when he was involved in a car accident. He refused to let police test his blood alcohol level. The man's attorney claims that after the accident, the man then went to Legacy Mount Hood to have his blood alcohol level tested out of curiosity, according to the article. The man believed the Gresham hospital would not release his test results, as per HIPAA, though a hospital employee subsequently informed the authorities of the test results.
The lawsuit claims that "medical workers have an obligation to tell police if they treat a driver for injuries from a vehicle crash and believe the patient has a blood alcohol level above the legal limit of 0.08 percent," but a physician never actually treated the man, so the legal requirement to disclose the test result wasn't applicable, according to the Oregonian.
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