ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. – Two University of New Mexico Hospital workers were fired for taking photos of patients using their cell phones and posting the images on a social networking site.
A hospital administrator received an anonymous tip saying that the photos were posted on MySpace. An investigation was immediately launched.
The MySpace page was only available to the employee’s online friends. The patients in the photos could not be indentified because their faces and other personal identifying features were removed. However, hospital officials made sure the photos were removed from the Web site and from each employee’s cell phone.
Hospital officials said the two employees were fired because they violated a policy that bans cell phones in patient areas. Other employees were disciplined because they did not tell managers that photos were being taken.
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