Wisconsin EMT Charged with Sexually Assaulting Patient Pleads Not Guilty

[News]

He allegedly fondled a woman and allegedly lifted her skirt and took pictures.

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[DwayneEMTP]

A lot of the comments are asking why it's appropriate for this charge to be brought 13 months after the incident....

My guess would be that some pictures have unexpectedly turned up....

[Arctickat]

It's crap like this that makes me want to put a camera in the patient compartment. Not to keep an eye on untrustworthy staff, but to use if a client ever makes a false allegation against them. Before you Hippa, Hipa, Hippo, HIIPA, whatever people jump down my throat, the video would never see the light of day and no one ever would watch it...not even me...unless there is a specific complaint.

Edited September 8, 2012 by Arctickat

[paramedicmike]

Actually, Kat, I see cameras in the back coming in the not too distant future.

[DFIB]

Some services already have cameras in the trucks. I rode with a service last summer that has cameras in the patient compartment and the cab. It has a feed into a screen in the cab so the driver can see what is going on in the back. I am not sure but I think it has a live feed back to the base. I believe this because we had a run were things were less than perfect and the supervisors were waiting on us when we arrived with all of the information they wanted to comment on in hand.

[eb1040]

It's crap like this that makes me want to put a camera in the patient compartment. Not to keep an eye on untrustworthy staff, but to use if a client ever makes a false allegation against them. Before you Hippa, Hipa, Hippo, HIIPA, whatever people jump down my throat, the video would never see the light of day and no one ever would watch it...not even me...unless there is a specific complaint.

It is easy to blame HIPAA if it is not understood what the purpose of this regulation actually is. In California and a few other states, the privacy laws including those that have nothing to do with billing are far more strict. HIPAA does not regulate the use of cameras if the viewing is done only by those who need to know and some security is maintained. The same goes for the state regulations. This is common practice in many areas of medicine for education, security, patient monitoring and telemedicine. I do know several ambulances companies do have cameras in the back and some have the telemedicine links where they are viewed by the physician or nurse at the other end throughout transport. Also, if the form is worded correctly for the release of information, the recorded information can be used to teaching purposes which would be a good thing for EMS to see what could have been done better or not done at all.

Court cases take time to file and get all the facts. It the photos surfaced, this Paramedic will have some explaining to do. The "delete" button doesn't mean too much now with the memory cards and some data can still be recovered.