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PA hospital under attack for patient safety and security violations
Healthcare Security Weekly, June 6, 2005
A Pennsylvania woman is suing her former employer for wrongful termination, claiming she was fired last November for reporting patient privacy and safety violations, reports the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.
Donna E. Kovacs, who worked as a senior executive secretary at Magee-Womens Hospital in Oakland, PA, says she first reported her suspicions to her supervisor last year. Among her claims were that officials altered patient records and withheld some pathology slides from patients. Her claims were met with hostility and intimidation, says Kovacs.
Kovacs then filed a formal affidavit with the state Department of Health last October. She was fired one month later. In a letter to Kovacs, the hospital claimed she "improperly accessed and downloaded confidential patient information."
The lawsuit is only the latest in a series of charges against the hospital. In addition to several pending lawsuits from former patients, two former doctors have sued the hospital for attaching their electronic signatures to Pap smear reports they did not review.
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