Nurse admits peeking at health records

The Ontario College of Nurses has suspended a Sault Ste. Marie nurse for three months for accessing the personal health information of approximately 338 hospital patients without consent or authorization.

Marcella Calvano pleaded guilty to contravening a standard of practice of the profession and engaging in dishonourable and unprofessional conduct at a discipline committee hearing on Tuesday.

An agreed statement of facts entered into evidence at Tuesday’s hearing says audits were ordered into Calvano’s use of an electronic tracker for the emergency department in 2012 after an emergency department nurse told her manager she couldn't access a patient’s records because Calvano was accessing them and they were locked.

The final audit determined Calvano accessed electronic health records for 338 patients between January 2011 and December 2012 - not including those who potentially could have been within Calvano’s care.

Calvano, who previously worked as a critical care float nurse in intensive care and emergency, should have lost access to SAH’s emergency department records system when she was transferred to the surgical unit, but the court document says that was not the case.

The agreed statement of facts says there is no evidence Calvano disclosed any of the information she viewed, and notes that while she initially denied accessing the records, she later admitted to the hospital at the same meeting that she had done so.

As part of Calvano’s sentence, she is required to complete remedial activities, to inform employers of the result of the hearing, and inform the college of all nursing employers for a set period of time.

From the agreed statement of facts:

“If the member were to testify, she would state that she understood the serious nature of her misconduct and has taken appropriate steps to learn from it so that it will not occur again. In particular, the member created a learning plan in January 2014 to address these specific issues."

The statement also notes that last month Calvano gave an in-house seminar on privacy and confidentiality at her current employer, Revera Home Health.

Calvano, who has no prior disciplinary findings, was dismissed by Sault Area Hospital in January, 2013 but the termination was converted to a resignation following a grievance.

The health records system in question allows access to who is in the emergency department, their date of birth, when they were in the emergency department, the patient’s primary complaint, order entries, lab work, diagnostic imaging results and all lab results.