Hospital Worker Fired For Divulging Patient Information Can Sue For Wrongful Termination

New Jersey's Appellate Court recently ruled that a wrongful termination lawsuit by a former hospital worker who divulged patient information can proceed. In reversing the lower court's dismissal of the case, the Appellate Court stated that it sought to balance the competing public policies of patient confidentiality and public safety. Serrano v. Christ Hospital, No. A-4448-06T3 (App. Div. December 21, 2007).

Patient Information Revealed

Plaintiff, Elia Serrano, a hospital employee since 1988, worked as a secretary in the hospital's ICU department. She had signed a confidentiality statement indicating that "patient care data" was confidential and that she was barred from revealing this and other confidential information "at all times, both at work and off duty." In 2004, while in the course of her employment, she translated for an elderly Spanish-speaking patient to help determine whether the