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Medical Employee in Hot Water After Careless MySpace Comments

by Tim Stevens on December 9, 2008 at 10:31 AM

Medical Employee in Hot Water After Careless MySpace CommentsWe're not exaggerating when we say that social networks, if used without considering the consequences of posting certain types of content, can be dangerous to your education or your continued employment.

We've seen time and time again how careless comments and pictures posted online for all to see have gotten people into trouble, and here's yet another example. This time, it's another job-related mess, with OB/GYN office employee Stephanie Sicilia saying some rather unkind things about people on her MySpace page -- and getting hit with a Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act complaint.

It's against the law for doctors or their employees to share any personally identifiable information about patients, and while Sicilia's comments didn't call anyone out by name, the comments were rather descriptive, not to mention spiteful and insulting. One comment, made in public on her page, said about one woman: "her stories are entertaining but I've only slept with as many people as she has had abortions." She referred to one collection of patients as "the tramp troop." It's unlikely there is quite enough legal grounds for a proper lawsuit here, but we wouldn't be surprised if a stiff reprimand is in the very near future for Sicilia... if not an outright firing. [From: ars technica]

Tags: dumb, health insurance portability and accountability act, HealthInsurancePortabilityAndAccountabilityAct, internet mishaps, InternetMishaps, mishaps, myspace, privacy, social networking, SocialNetworking, stephanie sicilia, StephanieSicilia, web

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