VA employee under investigation for posting patients' surgery details on Twitter

An administrative officer at a Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Washington, D.C., is under investigation for tweeting details of a veteran's surgery and mocking the procedure as a waste of taxpayer money, according to a Sept. 14 Military Times report.

Six things to know:

  1. The employee, who works in the hospital's anesthesia department, posted a screenshot of a medical note regarding the procedure. The patient was getting a penile implant to treat his erectile dysfunction.

  2. "72 y/o male gets government funded surgery [eggplant emoji]," the employee said on her Twitter account, @CarrieeeeC.

  3. The screenshot included the patient's surgery date, blood pressure, heart rate and several other vital signs, the Military Times reported.

  4. The employee's Twitter account has been deleted, according to the report.

  5. Gary Kunich, a spokesperson for the VA, told Becker's, "An investigation is underway and the employee has been removed from all access to Veteran medical records for the foreseeable future."

  6. The anesthesia note would qualify as being protected by HIPAA, according to the report.

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