{"id":226190,"date":"2019-04-26T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2019-04-26T07:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sdnews.com\/sharp-grossmont-sued-over-hidden-cameras\/"},"modified":"2019-04-26T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2019-04-26T07:00:00","slug":"sharp-grossmont-sued-over-hidden-cameras","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/sharp-grossmont-sued-over-hidden-cameras\/","title":{"rendered":"Sharp Grossmont sued over hidden cameras"},"content":{"rendered":"

Por Dave Schwab<\/p>\n

The number of women suing Sharp Grossmont Hospital in La Mesa in a class-action lawsuit alleging hidden cameras secretly filmed them while they were undergoing surgical procedures has grown from 81 to 231 plaintiffs.<\/p>\n

Sharp Grossmont claims the women were filmed inadvertently during an investigation from July 17, 2012 to June 30, 2013 into the alleged theft of an anesthesia drug, propofol, which was in short supply then.<\/p>\n

The former chief of anesthesia for Sharp Grossmont Hospital, Dr. Patrick Sullivan, 54, is corroborating the plaintiff\u2019s accusations. Sullivan is also suing Sharp Grossmont, claiming he was forced to resign by the hospital administration following his whistleblowing over the unauthorized tapings.<\/p>\n

Noting the hospital is \u201cunable to provide further comment on this active legal matter,\u201d Sharp HealthCare vice president of public relations and communication, John Cihomsky, released a hospital letter sent April 4 to the community addressing plaintiffs\u2019 allegations.<\/p>\n

\u201cGiven the number of reports that have come out recently and the variations among them, we wanted to explain the situation to you directly,\u201d said the letter signed by Chris Howard, president\/CEO of Sharp HealthCare. \u201cIn 2012, we were alerted that, beginning in 2011, potentially powerful drugs and equipment were missing from the anesthesia cart in each of Sharp Grossmont Hospital\u2019s three Women\u2019s Center operating rooms. Our initial efforts to determine the cause of the missing drugs through interviews and other investigative methods were unsuccessful. We then installed a computer monitor with a motion-activated camera in each of the three Women\u2019s Center operating rooms. Although the cameras were intended to record only individuals in front of the anesthesia carts, others, including patients and medical personnel in the operating rooms, were at times visible to the cameras and recorded without sound.\u201d<\/p>\n

Added Howard in his letter, \u201cThe purpose of this investigation was to determine how the anesthesia drugs were going missing in order to ensure patient safety and quality of care. \u2026The surveillance methods in the 2012-13 investigation were used for that particular case only, and have not been used again. Sharp HealthCare and Sharp Grossmont Hospital continue to take extensive measures to protect the privacy of our patients. The videos in our possession are kept in a secured safe in our security department. We have provided copies of videos to third parties in response to legal processes or specific patient authorizations or requests. \u2026 We sincerely apologize that our efforts may have caused any distress to the women who were recorded, their families, and others we serve. We can assure you this surveillance method is no longer in use, and we have made changes in our protocols to ensure this situation is not repeated.\u201d<\/p>\n

Plaintiffs\u2019 attorney Allison H. Goddard of Patterson Law Group of San Diego said her clients are alleging privacy violations and suing for damages from emotional distress.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe don\u2019t have a number,\u201d said Goddard. \u201cIt will be up to the jury to decide.\u201d<\/p>\n

Goddard noted the hospital\u2019s letter \u201cwas an apology to the community \u2014 not the women who were affected. The apology strike us as being insincere given the position they (Sharp) have taken in court.\u201d<\/p>\n

Goddard said patients first learned of the secret hospital recordings after their images were released as part of a 2016 Medical Board of California proceeding involving the doctor accused of allegedly stealing from the hospital\u2019s carts.<\/p>\n

Former Sharp anesthesia chief Patrick Sullivan, M.D., disputes Sharp\u2019s version of events surrounding the unauthorized taping of female patients.<\/p>\n

\u201cNot only did Sharp betray the trust of the patients at Grossmont Hospital, the people of East San Diego County and the people of California and the United States who were rightfully outraged by Sharp\u2019s wanton disregard for privacy and human decency, but Sharp ignored my concerns when I brought the filming to their attention,\u201d said Sullivan. \u201cThey continued the filming for three more months, and served me up a nice plate of retaliation for my efforts. I and other anesthesiologists at the Sharp Grossmont Women\u2019s Center had to resort to putting tape over the cameras to protect the patients\u2019 privacy.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/a>
Former Sharp chief of anesthesia Dr. Patrick Sullivan (Courtesy Asbury PR)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Added Sullivan, \u201cIn addition, to add insult to injury, all of the approximately 21,000 video clips were reviewed by a male Sharp security employee. And Sharp has offered no proof that the cameras are not still there and still filming, or that they have indeed changed their videotaping policy as they have publicly stated.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThey (Sharp) claim they were trying to identify the source, an employee, of the missing drugs, so they had hidden motion-detection cameras embedded in computer monitors on different carts in the emergency rooms,\u201d said plaintiffs\u2019 attorney Goddard. \u201cThe field of view of almost every video I\u2019ve seen captured patients either walking into the room or being escorted out of the room. Many captured patients on the table being prepared for their (medical) procedures, or being cared for after.\u201d<\/p>\n

Goddard disputed Sharp\u2019s claim that the taping of the women was unintended.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s no way, seeing the range of the recordings in these videos \u2026 They had to have known what had happened,\u201d Goddard said.<\/p>\n

The plaintiffs\u2019 attorney said estimates are that approximately 1,800 women were recorded undergoing medical procedures during the time period involved. \u201cWe don\u2019t have access to all the 1,800,\u201d Goddard said adding the 231 thus far named in the suit are only those who have come forward.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe whole point of the lawsuit is to hold Sharp accountable, and send a message to Sharp \u2014 and every hospital in the United States \u2014 that this is not acceptable, hidden cameras in patient treatment areas,\u201d Goddard said. \u201cIt\u2019s such a personal issue. It still seems unbelievable to me. I can\u2019t fathom that the hospital did this. The highest level of the hospital knew of it \u2014 and approved of it. They were kept informed at every step.\u201d<\/p>\n

Goddard added more plaintiffs could be added to the 231 already named in the lawsuit.<\/p>\n

\u201cI would love for every person who was affected by this to have their day in court,\u201d she concluded.<\/p>\n

\u2014 P\u00f3ngase en contacto con Dave Schwab en reporter@sdnews.com<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Dave Schwab The number of women suing Sharp Grossmont Hospital in La Mesa in a class-action lawsuit alleging hidden cameras secretly filmed them while they were undergoing surgical procedures has grown from 81 to 231 plaintiffs.<\/p>","protected":false},"author":840,"featured_media":225385,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"11548","_seopress_titles_title":"Sharp Grossmont sued over hidden cameras","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[11548,11551,11550],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-226190","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-la-mesa-courier","category-news","category-top-stories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/226190","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/840"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=226190"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/226190\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/225385"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=226190"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=226190"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=226190"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}