Can a medical secretary be sued by a patient if she sent them the wrong lab work?
Asked by kenneltech
I am doing a paper about a medical secretary who mixed up two patients lab results. Everyone says that by the HIPPAA laws, she can be sued, is this accurate? Or do they sue the doctor's office? What would the lawsuit be for? What disciplinary actions could be taken against the secretary? Please help, I can't find much about laws concerning the front office staff!

Best Answer:
Sued, maybe some criminal charges, depending on how badly this mess up effected people. She should certainly not work in this capacity in the future.

Anyone can be sued by anyone. Will they win is the question.
Answered by lithuim

Can and should be sued. She should have pulled her head out of her butt and paid attention.
Answered by redhairedmama75

I get several malpractice articles each month. While this is not direct malpractice, it is a systems failure. Would the secretary be sued? No, unfortunately the doctor would be sued (or the medical practice). This is because suits go after the deep pocket; which in this case is the MD/clinic itself. Would they win? That all depends on what where the consequences of the act. If the wrong labs triggered a surgery or treatment based upon erroneous information OR positive results were substituted with normal results and a condition developed or worsened untreated, you would have a wrongful injury/death etc lawsuit. The practice would need to have safeguards & policies in place to mitigate this type of error. Often if discovered, apology letters can also lead to a positive outcome without a lawsuit. Many analyses of malpractice cases found that many parties just would have wanted a simple sincere apology. Suing under HIPPA can be hard if a true mistake occurred without any "evil" intent, particularly if there were policies in place etc and it was not negligence. The secretary could be fired, or certainly disciplined and depending on the severity of the offense can be "retrained" in policy and procedure & the practice would institute better safeguards to limit this type of error from happening again.
Answered by Diane A