Ethics Scenario #97: Hospital and Health Center of Greenstown

97. Grover, a nurse, has just been called into the office of his supervisor, Rema, the Director of Nursing at the  Hospital and Health Center of Greenstown, a nonprofit, 501(c)(3) organization, and told that he is fired. Grover has posted on his Facebook page that a certain patient of his, which he names, is certifiably mentally ill, and adds crude, disparaging remarks about this patient. Grover protests that only Rema, and other nurses at the hospital have access to this particular post, since it was posted to a private group. Rema responds that regardless of whether this post constitutes a violation of the Health Information Privacy Protection Act (HIPAA), and whether this page was not an official page of the institution, it was inappropriate and unprofessional for Grover to denigrate any particular patient.

a. Was Grover being unethical by posting about his patient on a “private” social networking page?

b. Was Rema being unethical by firing Grover?