OB-GYN Posts About Patient’s Still-Birth On Facebook
Dr. Amy Dunbar, OB-GYN for Mercy Hospital in St. Louis, Missouri, is being reviewed by her employers for mentioning a patient’s medical history on Facebook.
1. Many are demanding that Dr. Amy Dunbar, a Missouri-based OB-GYN, be fired after posting an insensitive comment on a Facebook page for mothers-to-be at Mercy Hospital.
3. Dunbar eventually deleted it, but the comment was circulated around the Moms To Be Facebook page as a screenshot.
4. The question of whether Dunbar discussing a prior stillbirth on social media reveals medical history, even if the patient is not named, is at the heart of the controversy.
5. The hospital has released a statement and pledges to investigate whether or not Dunbar has violated her hippocratic oath.
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- gabzombie OB-GYN Posts About Patient's Stil... and thinks it’s Fail & Trashy
- oleirons thinks OB-GYN Posts About Patient's Stil... is Trashy & WTF
- jayayenenwhy thinks OB-GYN Posts About Patient's Stil... is Fail & WTF
- Mandy N. thinks OB-GYN Posts About Patient's Stil... is Trashy, WTF & Fail
- jenm20 thinks OB-GYN Posts About Patient's Stil... is Fail
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jenm20 3 months agoWhat goes on Facebook, stays on Facebook. What you post can get you fired, doctor or not. You represent the company you work for, and negatively speaking of said company, supervisors, and other associates, can be held against you when you post it publicly (even if your settings are private). Every action has a reaction. She is a professional and should have thought about that BEFORE she posted a rant on a social media site. As for HIPAA, she did not list any identifying information, but it was still in very bad taste!
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victoria brand 3 months agocommenters are projecting frustration with their own personal acquaintances and strangers who dare to disrespect them with tardiness by calling this patient “obnoxious” and “selfish” and “awful.” only a few have considered the patient might be under crippling panic every day leading to an appointment, just expecting to find a fetus with no heartbeat at any second.
how do manners and decorum mean more than compassion for a person dealing with a stillbirth after 40 weeks of pregnancy? (oh goodness, a DEPLORABLE IRRESPONSIBLE mother! it’s more important that she’s inconveniencing you.) a doctor commenting to a public forum about a patient is just stupid and petty, at best.
the real issue is the doctor just outed herself as crappy and neglectful (that’s being kind) with the demeanor of a middleschooler. the fact that a medical professional chooses to be snarky behind their patient’s back instead of addressing the mental issue at hand, instead of insisting on therapeutic referrals before the patient blows off another appointment and possibly does something completely unstable… that’s where the real offense is.
and the country wonders how mental issues escalate. duh. -
- Doom's Bride OB-GYN Posts About Patient's Stil... and thinks it’s Fail
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genevievetoo 3 months ago
maybe the mother-to-be wasn’t irresponsible or lazy. maybe she was scared. if she’d had a stillbirth before, she might have dreaded going to the doctor, lest there be bad news. obviously, she still should have gone to her appointments and been on time. but her lack of action could be coming from fear and anxiety rather than straight up not caring.
and the fact that the OB-GYN couldn’t put those two things is kind of alarming. and the fact that she so nonchalantly talked about it on facebook is too. -
- nessae OB-GYN Posts About Patient's Stil... and thinks it’s Trashy & Fail
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AustenJ 3 months ago
While I agree that this patient is completely incompetent, I also believe that facebook is no place to talk about any patient, no matter if any identifying data was disclosed. These doctors didn’t break any HIPAA rules, however, in any medical profession, we are taught not to talk about our patients to anyone other than the people that need to know anything about that patient, for the good of the patient. Granted, people still talk about patients with their friends/families/coworkers, but unfortunately facebook is very public, and as demonstrated in this article, permanent. I can definitely see this going south for the doctor, unfortunately. Even though she technically didn’t break any HIPAA rules, this woman can still argue on the ethical side of it. Bad judgement on both sides!
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- What!?! thinks OB-GYN Posts About Patient's Stil... is Ew
- janice! OB-GYN Posts About Patient's Stil... and thinks it’s WTF, OMG & Win
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kelseyj3 3 months agoOh God, people. She is a healthcare professional venting about an obviously irresponsible, inconsiderate and rude patient. This is not against the law. Perhaps it should have been a more private facebook post, given that the people who reported her obviously haven’t developed the dark sense of humor REQUIRED in our profession. Sarcastic comments to her post were said in jest. She gave NO identifying information about the patient (trust me, I know of what I speak), and was not joking about the patient’s condition or stillbirth. Protected health information (related to HIPPA) is information that could directly identify a patient such as: Name, DOB, SSN, address/phone and photos/videos without permission. Stay strong, Doc. The craziness will all go away once they realize there is no case or basis for any disciplinary action. I’d get representation if someone attempted to sue for this- and I’d win.
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- Suckacat thinks OB-GYN Posts About Patient's Stil... is Trashy
- torsl965 thinks OB-GYN Posts About Patient's Stil... is Fail
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beckio 3 months agoI kind of hope the expectant mother sues. Then maybe it’ll bring attention to the fact that she’s obviously irresponsible and inconsiderate and probably not the best person to be raising a child. Oh, and the lawsuit? Guaranteed way to get your name out there and connected with the posts, so every doctor from here to Timbuktu will think twice when they see that name. Go ahead, bitch, sue. Also, the ONLY people who could POSSIBLY deduce who this woman is going by what the doctor shared in the post are people who have access to that doctor’s patient list and appointment schedule. Basically, people who would have known ANYWAY the woman was consistently late and inconsiderate, the doctor’s own co-workers. I don’t see anything here that tells who the woman is specifically in a way anyone in the general public could use to identify her. It will be so ridiculous if this doctor is disciplined. It all depends on whether the judge gets laid that night or not though. Justice doesn’t even matter anymore.
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- chasityc thinks OB-GYN Posts About Patient's Stil... is WTF
- OB-GYN Posts About Patient's Stil... is starting to get hot on Twitter Tweet It
- claudiac5 thinks OB-GYN Posts About Patient's Stil... is Fail
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nataliem11 3 months agoRevealing patient information in this way is HIPAA violation. Physicians and health care professionals are regularly educated about HIPAA regulations because violating a patient’s privacy exposes them to severe civil and criminal penalties. This doctor is in deep shit, and deservedly so. Bitching about a patient on Facebook is incredibly reckless and shows a tremendous lack of judgement. I doubt this idiot will be practicing medicine much longer b/c she is about to get her ass sued so hard that she will never be able to afford malpractice insurance again.
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Wombatish 3 months ago
“De-Identified Health Information. There are no restrictions on the use or
disclosure of de-identified health information.
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De-identified health information
neither identifies nor provides a reasonable basis to identify an individual. There are
two ways to de-identify information; either: 1) a formal determination by a qualified
statistician; or 2) the removal of specified identifiers of the individual and of the
individual’s relatives, household members, and employers is required, and is
adequate only if the covered entity has no actual knowledge that the remaining
information could be used to identify the individual.” The only people who could identify the patient in this situation are her already HIPAA certified caregivers. I don’t agree with the public posting, and do think it was unprofessional, but it’s not a HIPAA breach. This would be a fine (and fair, pt is being a douche) private comment.
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BarbaraWalters 3 months ago
The staff did violate HIPPA, and for people saying that they never mentioned a name, you don’t need to mention a name, that’s why HIPPA is so brutal, because there are instances where people would just say a vague detail & someone else understood the identity of the person being talked about, this happens all the time Whether to fire them or show them a different form of discipline is a different story, but that bar comment is way too much
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- xsmall thinks OB-GYN Posts About Patient's Stil... is Trashy & Fail
- elvisdepressley thinks OB-GYN Posts About Patient's Stil... is Fail & Ew
- gummehz thinks OB-GYN Posts About Patient's Stil... is Fail
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LightningUsagi 3 months ago
I was more put off by the comment about the girl possibly being at the bar. I hope that person was disciplined as well.
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- suemacdonaldk thinks OB-GYN Posts About Patient's Stil... is Trashy
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Fish Jones 3 months ago
20 years ago, she’d say that stuff to her friends and be fine with it. Now, she says that stuff to her friends and the whole internet goes berserk. The difference is it’s on Facebook… which is why I keep my shit on Responses and not *on* the Facebook feed.
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- marissas4 thinks OB-GYN Posts About Patient's Stil... is Win
- bananarama thinks OB-GYN Posts About Patient's Stil... is Fail
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- Disneylandtrixie OB-GYN Posts About Patient's Stil...
- angelicaa5 thinks OB-GYN Posts About Patient's Stil... is WTF
- everaftering thinks OB-GYN Posts About Patient's Stil... is Fail
- Alex Klarich thinks OB-GYN Posts About Patient's Stil... is Fail & Trashy
- christinap12 OB-GYN Posts About Patient's Stil...
- missjuly thinks OB-GYN Posts About Patient's Stil... is WTF & Trashy
- rosariodelpilarc thinks OB-GYN Posts About Patient's Stil... is Fail & WTF
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Kendrick 3 months ago
Social networking has been around long enough that anyone not just coming into high school should have learned to think before they post. These “professionals” definitely have only themselves to blame. On the other hand, the fact that a woman can be so thoughtless and careless as to miss appointments of that caliber is completely disgusting to me. I’ve not had kids, but I imagine that monitoring the health and progress of the baby should be kind of important. I’m not familiar with HIPAA at all, so I’ll refrain from passing judgment there. However, I am familiar with confidentiality rules, and I’d say the doctor walked a thin line. For my own reasons, I still find myself siding with the doctor. There’s plenty of blame to go around, though.
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Ticia232 3 months ago
I have kids and I side with the doctor as well. People are saying that the people who work at the hospital will now know who she is, because of the post. They would already know who the person was because they were 3 hours late for what was prepared for them. Unless the female replies, it is not likely that any of us would know who the person is. The doctor was asked why she let the female get away with it and she answered. The doctor could have told her after the first late arrival to an appointment to get lost, but she didn’t due to the prior stillbirth. That is above and beyond to me, the doctor allowed her to come in late, stayed pass her hours, and she is rewarded for her efforts by the person NOT showing up for 3 hours!
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miths1009 3 months ago
Why haven’t people learned not to put junk Luke this online?! Whether it seems wrong or not, I would be hesitant after everything that goes on regarding posts. If you want to vent, talk to someone. Or just write it down. Don’t make it public so someone can use it against you.
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- jess :) thinks OB-GYN Posts About Patient's Stil... is Fail
- cmerry thinks OB-GYN Posts About Patient's Stil... is WTF
- Calico Cunty thinks OB-GYN Posts About Patient's Stil... is Trashy, WTF & Fail
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mariath 3 months ago
Seriously, someone would have to be really fucking invested in finding out who that patient was. Besides, you don’t just make a professional whose line of work involves unforseen emergencies wait for 3+ hours. Actually, you don’t make anyone wait 3+ hours! Besides number 2: what the hell happened to venting? Why are we demanding that some people be the epitome of perfection while slapping the wrist of others? People make mistakes, and people talk shit. Every one of us has trashed someone on our lives, some with more reason than others. Ok? Now get the fuck off your high horse.
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stephaniesezz 3 months ago
people need to stop venting about their jobs on social media sites. go to bar, have a drink or two and vent to a work friend but don’t put it all over facebook and twitter or whatever else, you moron!
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- maggsville thinks OB-GYN Posts About Patient's Stil... is WTF & Trashy
- Cryz08 thinks OB-GYN Posts About Patient's Stil... is OMG
- ak4d7 thinks OB-GYN Posts About Patient's Stil... is Trashy, WTF & Fail
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viciousliz 3 months ago
not a HIPAA violation. this bitch might have had the decency to show up to her appointments on time, and the doctor wouldn’t have been pissed. also, if this woman had a previous stillbirth, it seems like she would be concerned with the health & well being of this child. a few minutes late is understandable. but three hours?? I would have told her to find a new doctor…she’s lucky I’m not an OBGYN.
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- Judd Hayes thinks OB-GYN Posts About Patient's Stil... is Trashy, OMG & Fail
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