Photos of dying patient posted to Facebook

Can you imagine? William Wells, the patient, had been stabbed more than 12 times by resident at his nursing home, but when he got to St. Mary Medical Center’s ER, some nurses and other staff took photos of him and posted them on Facebook. 

This patient privacy breach occurred April 9 at the Long Beach, California-based hospital and led to the firing of four staff members, and discipline for three more. This incident is one of nine potential breaches of patient privacy at the hospital this year.

Read the whole story at http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-facebook-20100809,0,5049805,print.story.

Does your hospital have  a clear policy on how they would handle this and other types of patient privacy breaches?