Twisted hospital workers post injury photos to MySpace

by Stevie Smith - Sep 23 2008, 13:00

A pair of employees from the University of New Mexico Hospital this week find themselves out of work -- and probably a career -- after they were fired for taking mobile phone snapshots of hospital patients and posting the images to News Corp’s MySpace social network.

Hospital staff fired after posting ER images to MySpace. Image: pusgums/Flickr.

According to the Albuquerque hospital’s director of public affairs, Sam Giammo, the captured photos consisted of patients being treated for various injuries in the hospital emergency room, while some of the images apparently showed gory close-ups.Although the university hospital has currently terminated the contracts of two employees there is a possibility more jobs could be lost in connection to the incident after Giammo commented that other employees face implementation as the investigation continues to unfold.“We just won’t tolerate unprofessional actions by any of our staff. We just won’t stand for that,” commented Giammo in an AP report while also saying that the University of New Mexico Hospital values the privacy of its patients highly and “we will do everything we can to protect them.”While the pictures on MySpace did show specific treatments and injuries, those responsible for posting them had apparently attempted to sidestep privacy issues by removing any obvious personal details that could potentially identify the photographed patients.However, the guilty parties were fired from the hospital on the grounds that they violated policy regarding the absolute prohibition of using mobile phone cameras within patient areas.The incriminating photos, which were not open to the general MySpace population, have since been removed from social network after a senior member of hospital staff was alerted by an anonymous tip and immediately opened an investigation into the claim’s validity.Looked upon as an internal matter, the hospital is not expected to bring charges against the two terminated members of staff.

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Twisted hospital workers post injury photos to MySpace

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