Punitive damages ruled OK for privacy breach

The New York decision says the extra penalty is needed to prevent future violations.

By Amy Lynn Sorrel, AMNews staff. Dec. 17, 2007.

A New York appeals court ruling affirms that patients' privacy rights are paramount and makes it clear that the stakes for violating confidentiality could be high.

In a 3-2 decision, the Supreme Court of New York, the state's appellate level, allowed a patient to recover punitive damages from a surgical clinic for a privacy breach.

The patient had an abortion at Long Island Surgi-Center in 1999 and verbally instructed the staff to contact her on her cell phone because she did not want her parents to know about it, court records show. But after the procedure, a nurse called the patient's home to check on her and spoke with her mother. The nurse didn't mention the abortion but shared enough information for the mother to surmise what occurred.

Judges acknowledged that the breach didn't appear intentional but found enough evidence that the facility's conduct could be considered grossly negligent -- a standard sufficient to warrant punitive damages.

"There was no justification whatsoever offered for the remarkably casual way in which the center handled the plaintiff's sensitive medical information, and the need to deter other medical providers from engaging in similar conduct could hardly be clearer," the Sept. 25 opinion states.

Like every state, New York has a law to protect an individual's right to keep medical records and treatment confidential, the court said.

"As a result, when a state-licensed entity breaches that right -- and especially when it does so in connection with a particularly sensitive medical procedure -- more may be involved than simply a private wrong," the majority wrote.