Stupidity led to photo of nude patient, worker admits

A housekeeper at Waterloo's Covenant Medical Center was fired after admitting that she photographed a nude patient being treated in the hospital's emergency room.

State records show that Kimberly J. Niedert was working at Covenant Medical Center on May 26 when she used her cellphone to photograph a female patient who, according to the hospital, was undressed and unaware Niedert had photographed her.

Niedert, a 15-year hospital employee, was fired the next day. Her case came to light at a recent hearing dealing with her request for unemployment benefits, which were denied by an administrative law judge.

In recent years, dozens of Iowans have been fired for violating HIPAA, a federal law that requires hospitals, physicians' offices and other health care providers to protect patients' health information.

Niedert told The Des Moines Register she photographed the patient because the woman was behaving erratically in the emergency room and had thrown a food tray. "She was a psych patient," Niedert said.

At the unemployment hearing, hospital human resources director Suzanne Burt testified that two co-workers witnessed the incident, confronted Niedert and asked her to immediately delete the photo from her phone.

"Patients come to us when they're vulnerable," Burt testified. "Kim pulling out her cellphone and taking a picture of a patient — there was absolutely no reason for her to do that."

Niedert told the Register that a co-worker in the emergency room offered to help her take the photo by using her body to shield Niedert from the view of others. "She stated she would 'cover me' so no one would see me take the picture," Niedert said. "She said, 'I dare you.' "

Administrative Law Judge Duane Golden asked Niedert why she photographed the patient.

"Stupidity," Niedert responded.

Hospital officials also claimed Niedert had previously been given a warning for dishonesty and stealing. She was accused of misappropriating forms used by physicians to provide patients with excused absences from work, intending to let her son use them because he was in danger of losing his job.

Niedert testified she and her son never used the forms. "I felt guilty so I ripped them up and threw them away."

In denying her unemployment benefits, Golden ruled Niedert had shown a "blatant and wanton disregard for the employer's interests."

Hospital officials declined to comment on the case or say whether they informed the patient that her privacy rights had been violated.

Other patient privacy cases in Iowa in recent years include:

• 2011: Sartori Memorial Hospital in Cedar Falls fired a lab technician for sharing information about an emergency room patient and showing her co-workers a cellphone photo, apparently taken in the emergency room, of a fetus.

• 2011: A receptionist at Chest, Infectious Diseases and Critical Care Associates of Clive was fired after she was accused of sharing patient-treatment information with others and improperly accessing patient files at least 16 times.

• 2011: The University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics fired a medical assistant who admitted looking over the shoulder of another employee to verify the co-worker was examining a patient's file without authorization. The hospital fired three other employees for viewing the patient records of Hawkeye football players who had been hospitalized.

• 2012: A Davenport woman was fired from John Deere Medical Group of the Quad-Cities, where she worked as a patient coordinator, for multiple violations of federal patient-privacy laws. She was accused of repeatedly accessing the patient files of her supervisor and other colleagues, as well as their family members.