Dive Brief:
- A spokesman for the Texas hospital group that is being sued by Nina Pham, the nurse who contracted Ebola while working at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital, says that some of the allegations in the lawsuit are false.
- Pham claims that the hospital used her as a "public relations pawn" by videotaping her while she was ill and releasing the tape to the media without her consent. The hospital says Pham did consent to release of the tape.
- The hospital's comments were initially sent in an e-mail to staff shortly after the lawsuit was filed. The e-mail did not address the allegations that the hospital also failed to protect Pham from contracting the virus.
Dive Insight:
Whether or not the hospital has signed documentation to back up its claims that Pham consented to release of the videotape is unknown. If not, that was a huge oversight. Public health threats are always big news, so it's important for hospitals to do some advance planning as to how media requests will be handled in such cases without violating privacy laws. Hospital attorneys should be actively involved in the planning and sign off on any final policies or processes.