Confidentiality: Nurse Violated Patient’s Rights.

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Confidentiality: Nurse Violated Patient’s Rights.

The nurse violated the patient’s right to medical confidentiality by releasing confidential medical information that went far beyond his simple request for verification of his veterans disability status. The nurse committed malpractice by making a faulty diagnosis of AIDS that devastated the patient. UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT CALIFORNIA January 17, 2018

A US military veteran needed to apply for food stamps. To qualify he was required to provide verification from the Veterans Administration that he was disabled, that is, that he was on veterans disability status. He contacted the local VA health facility where he received care and asked that verification of his VA disability status be sent to the county welfare office.

Included in the information faxed to the county by a VA nurse was the fact the veteran is HIV positive. The nurse went beyond that and also included a diagnosis the nurse himself made from the chart that the veteran had AIDS and had only months to live. The veteran was devastated when he saw in a copy of the nurse’s fax that he had AIDS about having only months to live. The veteran’s misapprehension was corrected months later, but he sued nevertheless.

The US District Court for the Southern District of California ruled the nurse violated the patient’s medical confidentiality by unnecessarily disclosing his HIV status. However, the statute of limitations had expired for an invasion of privacy lawsuit. The Court also believed the nurse’s misdiagnosis of AIDS was medical malpractice, for which the statute of limitations could be extended to allow this lawsuit to go forward. Ricks v. US, 2018 WL 454455 (S.D. Cal., January 17, 2018).