Thirteen Everett Clinic employees fired for looking at patient records

Thirteen employees at The Everett Clinic have been fired
for
illegally looking at patient medical records.

The investigation is ongoing, but the clinic says 43
employees looked at records for 55 patients. It’s still
unclear how many of those employees were authorized to
view
the files. The activities of 11 more employees are
currently
under review.

The clinic says it is notifying all 55 patients of the
illegal activity.

The clinic hasn’t disclosed the job titles of the fired
employees, but did say the only people allowed to access a
patient’s file is someone directly involved in their care.

“Even though someone works here, it does not give them
permission to look at a record if they were not directly
involved in that person’s care,” said April Zepeda,
spokesperson with The Everett Clinic. “We take that very
seriously. Even if it’s just an employee who’s looking at
a family member’s medical record, it’s just as serious if
it was anyone else.”

The 13 employees were let go over the past several weeks
as
the clinic learned of the violations.