Court rules in favor of Sutter Health on confidentiality lawsuit

Sutter Medical Foundation did not violate California’s medical confidentiality act when a thief stole a computer containing the records of 4 million patients. The ruling absolves Sutter from a potential $4 billion in statutory damages, reports The Recorder.

Sutter is not held liable because no one actually accessed the records, wrote Justice George Nicholson. “The legislation at issue is the ‘Confidentiality of Medical Information Act,’ not the 'Possession of Medical Information Act',” he ruled.

The health system was sued after someone broke into Sutter Medical Foundation’s administrative offices in October 2011 and stole a personal computer that was password-protected but not encrypted. The machine included health records for about 1 million patients; for the rest it was limited to names, addresses, dates of birth and medical record numbers, according to The Recorder.

In a statement, Sutter officials said it is "pleased that the judicial process resulted in a ruling that will end litigation, which, if it had continued, would have diverted resources better spent on patient care, and would have increased the likelihood that private patient records would be used in litigation, even though no injury to patient confidentiality ever resulted from the theft."