Estranged from family, doctor snoops in records
Lora Pabst of the Star Tribune reported this a few weeks ago:
As his 22-year marriage was falling apart, Dr. Mark Schleiss was desperate for information about his estranged family. Court records show that his wife, Collett, wouldn’t return his phone calls. His oldest daughter refused to see him before she moved to Oregon for college. He couldn’t even find out why his teenage son was seeing a physical therapist.
Locked out of his home and ignored by his loved ones, Schleiss, a prominent University of Minnesota researcher, took matters into his own hands. He used his position at the university to peek into the medical records of his wife and two teenage daughters a dozen times in 2008 and 2009, university and other records show.
The state Board of Medical Practice investigated but did not discipline Schleiss, who heads the university’s pediatric infectious diseases division. Federal regulators are investigating to see if privacy laws were violated, according to e-mails sent to Collett Schleiss.
His wife says that after a while, she had become suspicious that he was actually obtaining information on them and that
Her suspicions were confirmed in June 2009, when she got letters notifying her of the privacy breaches from the university and Fairview Health Services, where family members were treated.
Four months later, Collett was told that Mark’s access to medical records would be monitored for six months by the University of Minnesota Physicians, a group of faculty members who practice at various locations. In an e-mail, the group’s compliance officer said Mark Schleiss had been disciplined for his “inappropriate access of medical records,” but provided no details.
Read more on the Star Tribune.
If the allegations are true, do you think he should have been fired?
Themocracy
Absolutely he should have been fired! The only thing saving his job is the amount of money he brings in to the University through research grants. Obviously he is buying his job.