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NM hospital workers fired for posting patient photos online

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University Of New Mexico Hospital
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A pair of workers at the University of New Mexico Hospital have been fired, and others disciplined, for taking pictures of patients receiving treatment and posting the images to social networking site MySpace. This follows a number of incidents related to the use of cell phone cameras in California, Arizona and South Dakota in recent years.

The images, largely shots of injuries being treated in the hospital's emergency department, were taken with the employees' cell phones. The photos were discovered when a hospital supervisor got an anonymous tip about them and began an investigation. Hospital managers personally oversaw the removal of the photos from the site, and from the employees' cell phones, officials said.

The MySpace page in question could only be accessed by the employee's MySpace "friends." Still, the employees violated a policy banning the use of cell phone cameras in patient cameras. The other employees who were disciplined were censured for not having reported the photos on their own. 

To learn more about this incident:
- read this piece from The Associated Press

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This is very very sad. I would never, never, want ER pictures of myself or my loved ones posted online for the world to view.
My teens and tweens are loving social networking sites like MySpace and Facebook. I have jumped on board and also have pages on those sites, it allows me, with the help of my parental control software SeeNoEvil, to see what they are doing online. We have had more then one conversation at the dinner table about a friend who may have posted something that should not be on there. They know about what can happen when pictures of information is taken out of context. I hope, that my proactive parenting about Internet use, helps them to use social networking for the better, not the worse.

Too bad our hospital didn't take a more serious stance on cell phone pictures of patients. Some employees were suspended and others in a different department actually had xray pics on myspace and series of pictures on her cell phone didn't get anything for a write up. Whatever happened to ethics and morals? As an RN, we are patient advocates and should NEVER allow this to occur!

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