Lab technician fired for looking up, revealing colleague's pregnancy test results

A woman's pregnancy test results were accessed and shared by a colleague without authorisation. Photo / File

A medical laboratory technician has been found guilty of professional misconduct after accessing the laboratory records of a colleague and sharing the information with other colleagues.

The woman, whose name and place of work were suppressed, accessed and viewed the electronic laboratory records of a colleague without authorisation in May last year, according to a Health Practitioners Disciplinary Tribunal decision released today.

The practitioner and medical laboratory scientist had been discussing whether another colleague might be pregnant because she had been checking her computer and had written on the staff break sheet that she was going for a blood test.

The practitioner then accessed the woman's laboratory records on the work computer and found that she was waiting on results for an ante-natal screen blood test to confirm whether she was pregnant.

She then told a number of staff about the tests saying, "guess who's pregnant?"

Despite being warned against it, the practitioner accessed the woman's records again the next day and saw that the tests had confirmed her pregnancy.

Again she told many of her colleagues about the test results.

The company's human resources department was told of the situation and an employment investigation was launched.

The practitioner admitted she had accessed the results and was fired following the investigation.

The tribunal agreed her actions amounted to professional misconduct so she was censured, ordered to pay $6300 in costs, required to disclose the decision for a year after she resumed work as a lab technician and that she attend a course on ethics, privacy and confidentiality if she did resume work in the industry.