Park Nicollet suspends employees for EMR snooping

Hoping to communicate that it's not going to tolerate questionable data use, Park Nicollet Clinic has disclosed that it suspended more than 100 employees over the past year for violating HIPAA rules.

In a memo to its 8,300 employees detailing the suspensions, the multi-specialty medical practice underscored its "zero tolerance policy" on health data disclosure. The suspended employees' violations consisted largely of looking at electronic medical records of relatives or friends, but that doesn't mitigate their seriousness, officials said.

The clinic didn't say how it found out about the violations. However, it's likely that Park Nicollet had technology in place to catch the wrongdoers. Increasingly, providers are implementing monitoring systems which scan for inappropriate access to EMRs, up to and including access by doctors who no longer work with a given patient directly.

To find out more about EMR access policies:
- read this Star Tribune article

Related Article:
AMA develops EMR security guidelines. Report