Employees Fired Over Patient Privacy Violations Luanne D. Walters HCS/335 Ethics: Health Care and Social Responsibility February 29, 2012 Jacqueline Paik Employees Fired Over Patient Privacy Violations “Whatsoever things I see or hear concerning the life of men, in the attendance on the sick or even apart there from, which ought not be noised abroad, I will keep silence thereon, counting such things to be as sacred secrets (Oath of Hippocrates, 4th Century, B.C.E.)”. Addressing issues pertaining to the privacy of a patient is not new to the medical arena. In the past the confidentiality between a patient and the doctor should have been taken seriously, however, was sometimes taken for granted, and information was passed to people with no need to know. In 1996 The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPPA) was legislated. Rules and regulations to guard patient privacy were brought to the forefront in the world of patient care. Safeguarding a patient’s electronic data continues to be a high emphasis in doctor/patient confidentiality. The issue that will be addressed in regard to violating patient privacy in this paper took place in a Minneapolis hospital in March 2011. The issue involved nearly 32 hospital employees who took it upon themselves to look up information on a number of patients who were part of a drug overdose incident. These employees were released from their positions at Unity Hospital, and Mercy Hospital in Allina, Minneapolis immediately after the violation was discovered. The discovered violation was deemed a HIPPA violation ("Allina Fires 32", 2011). The employees were released from their jobs when they electronically looked up records on a number of patients