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UC hospital not liable for syphilis Facebook post

Kevin Grasha
kgrasha@enquirer.com
A judge's gavel.

University of Cincinnati Medical Center can’t be sued after an employee leaked private medical records about a patient who had syphilis, a judge ruled Monday.

The patient, a woman in her early 20s, filed the lawsuit last year. A screen shot of the woman’s private medical records from the hospital was posted on the Facebook group, “Team No Hoes,” in September 2013. The records listed the woman’s diagnosis as “maternal syphilis.” She was pregnant at the time.

An email that included the same screen shot also was sent to members of that Facebook group, according to the lawsuit.

At a hearing Monday in Hamilton County Common Pleas Court, Judge Jody Luebbers ruled that the employee was not acting “within the scope of her employment” by leaking the records.

Ohio case law, Luebbers said, dictated that she drop the hospital from the suit.

“(The hospital) had a policy. It was violated,” she said. “It’s tragic … but that’s just how I see it.”

Attorney Mike Allen, who is representing the woman, said it was a close call and that the issue was decided on a legal technicality. He expects his client to appeal.

Ohio courts, Allen said, “need to take a look at this.”

The suit also names the woman’s former boyfriend and the former hospital employee, who was fired a week after the Facebook post.

The hospital conducted an investigation, according to court documents, and determined that the employee, who worked in financial services, accessed the information.

The hospital does not dispute what happened. An attorney for the hospital, Katherine Klaeren, said in court that according to case law an employer can’t be found liable for an employee who commits acts outside the scope of their job.

The employee, Klaeren said, had “made an unauthorized disclosure to a very derisively named Facebook page.”

In an interview, Allen said his client still suffers from depression because of what happened. She even lost hair over it.

“She’s suffered great humiliation,” Allen said. “That’s what so horrible about this.”