Patient sues Ohio hospital for employee's breach of STD diagnosis

News of a lawsuit filed against the University of Cincinnati Medical Center for sensitive information posted on Facebook by an employee has hit the mainstream media.

Huffington Post, USA Today and other outlets are reporting that a woman diagnosed with a sexually transmitted infection is suing two Ohio hospital employees for allegedly leaking her medical records online in a Facebook group called "Team No Hoes."

According to Cincinnati news outlet WLWT5, the woman is suing two University of Cincinnati Medical Center employees for more than $25,000 in damages for allegedly publishing a screenshot of her syphilis diagnosis and slut-shaming her to the Facebook group's roughly 2,300 members.

The breach appears to be the result of a romance gone bad as the lawsuit claims the two employees posted the plaintiff's records at the request of her ex-boyfriend.

"The lawsuit also claims the health system and UC Medical Center negligently supervised [one of the accused employees] and has not done enough to identify the other unknown employee allegedly involved," Cincinnati.com reports.

“UC Health became aware of this incident shortly after the screenshot of this patient’s billing record appeared on Facebook, when she brought it to our attention. We took swift action and our investigation revealed that the record had been accessed by a financial services employee who did not have a business reason to do so,” according to a statement from Lee Ann Liska, UC Health president and CEO, posted on the facility’s website.

The employee had been fully trained and acknowledged her responsibilities under law and UC Health policy, but apparently accessed the billing record through a personal motivation, Liska wrote. The individual’s employment was terminated and UC Health reported the incident to federal authorities.

“We are outraged that anyone might misuse a position with UC Health to attempt to embarrass or cause harm to another person,” she wrote. “This is contrary to our ethic and the training we provide to our associates, and we took immediate action as a result.”