Doctor gets slammed for snooping into health records of politician, clinic staff and health authority employees

A Saskatchewan doctor who snooped into the electronic medical records of patients who were not under his care has been suspended from practice for three months and ordered to pay close to $24,000 in hearing costs. Dr. Ashwani Narang, a primary care physician in Rosetown, a small community about 115 kilometres southwest of Saskatoon, was found guilty by the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Saskatchewan of unbecoming, improper, unprofessional or discreditable conduct. According to college discipline documents, Dr. Narang accessed personal health information without the patients’ consent, and did not have a physician-patient relationship with these patients. Read: Disciplined: Staff knew doctor’s password An investigation report by the Office of the Saskatchewan Information and Privacy Commissioner revealed that Dr. Narang looked at the records of 20 patients, including clinic employees and their families, a politician, employees of the Saskatchewan Health Authority and their relatives. Seven of the patients whose privacy was violated were family members of an employee at the clinic where Dr. Narang worked. A lawyer for Dr. Narang wrote the privacy commissioner, arguing that Dr. Narang had a trusteeship role over the clinic’s EMR. The commissioner disagreed and asserted that even if Dr. Narang were a trustee, he still had no right to access patients’ information without their consent and without the framework of a physician-patient relationship. An audit into Dr. Narang’s EMR activity was launched in April 2019–about eight months after Dr. Narang joined the clinic–after he made some comments that caused clinic employees to suspect he had been looking at patients’ personal health information in the EMR without a need-to-know. The audit revealed that Dr. Narang not only accessed the records of clinic employees but also the health information of patients not under his care. He admitted his error with two files but maintained he either had reason to access the remaining 18 files or that there were technical issues that contributed to the appearance of improper access. Read: STICKY SITUATION: Psychiatrist slammed for giving patient tape and instructions on genital tucking

Doctor gets slammed for snooping into health records of politician, clinic staff and health authority employees

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