(file photo/battlefordsNOW Staff)

By Tyler Marr

WPD paramedic agrees to resolution after taking, sharing image of patient injury

Aug 7, 2019 | 4:22 PM

After he took and shared a picture of a patient’s injury, a paramedic with North Battleford-based WPD Ambulance has signed off on a complaint resolution.

In September 2017, a complaint was brought before the Saskatchewan College of Paramedics’ professional conduct committee about one of WPD’s members, according to the agreement, which was signed in June.

During the college’s investigation, they found Erik Marcoux took two pictures of a patient’s injured arm with his personal cellphone and shared the images with several people at his workplace. Marcoux admitted he had done so, the resolution agreement said.

He was found guilty of professional misconduct on the grounds he took the images without the informed consent of the patient.

Marcoux agreed to complete the Health Information Protection Act (HIPA) Bootcamp at his own cost within six months of signing the agreement. He agreed to pay $500 to the college to cover the cost of the investigation and must write an essay of at least 1,000 words about the issue of confidentiality in the profession.

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The incident occurred a few months after a report was released from Saskatchewan’s privacy commissioner about a similar complaint lodged against another paramedic at WPD.

In August 2016, a complaint was brought forward after a woman badly injured her hand in an accident. After she was taken to the hospital by WPD, a paramedic took a photograph of the exposed, injured hand.

WPD admitted the photo was not taken in accordance with HIPA in response to the complaint and issued an apology. The complainant, however, was not satisfied with the response as WPD did not say what disciplinary action was taken and she notified the privacy commissioner’s office to investigate.

During the investigation, WPD submitted the photo did not qualify as personal health information as it did not identify the patient. WPD said the paramedic took the photo as she had not seen an injury like it before and she thought it would be a useful tool to discuss and educate her fellow paramedics on how best to treat such an injury.

The investigation found the complainant was identifiable to the paramedic and the injury was “somewhat unique” and happened in a small community.

“There is a risk that, either by itself or when combined with other information available to the other paramedics who saw the photograph, the personal health information could enable the complainant to be identified,” Saskatchewan’s Privacy Ronald J. Kruzeniski wrote in his March 21, 2017 decision.

Calls from battlefordsNOW to WPD Ambulance for comment were not returned.

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tyler.marr@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @JournoMarr