Ministry of Defence | Defence News | MOD confirms loss of recruitment data

[Nicholas Bohm]

This is the sort of attitude we need here:

Punitive damages permitted for unintentional disclosure of sensitive
medical information

In a three-to-two ruling, a New York state appellate court ruled that
punitive damages can be awarded for the unintentional disclosure of
sensitive medical information. In the case of Randi A.J. (Anonymous) v.
Long Island Surgi-Center, No. 2005-04976 (N.Y. Sup. Ct. App. Div. Sept.
25, 2007), despite specific instructions from the twenty-year-old
patient not to contact her at home, the center placed a call to the home
to follow up on some post-operative blood tests and in so doing
inadvertently released information to the patient’s mother that allowed
the mother to determine that her daughter had received an abortion. The
court concluded that punitive damages are available where the breach of
patient confidentiality is the result of “willful or wanton negligence
or recklessness,” and awarding such damages would “deter future
reprehensible conduct.” The court also noted numerous other instances
where the surgery center had not protected patient privacy, as well as
the fact that the center had insufficient privacy policies and
procedures.

The foregoing summary is taken from Winston & Strawn LLP’s Privacy &
Technology Client Bulletin, Fourth Quarter 2007.

Nicholas
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