An employee at Kings County Hospital’s emergency room stole nearly 100 patients’ private information and sold it through an encrypted app on his phone, according to New York Daily News.
Orlando Jemmott, 52, has worked at the city-run Brooklyn hospital for more than 10 years, where he was in charge of charting patient demographic data into the hospital’s computer system. But between December 2014 and April 2015, he allegedly sold patient data to Ron Pruitt, 43, a buyer in Pennsylvania.
FBI agents arrested Mr. Jemmott in February after receiving a tip in June 2017. A tipster told the FBI she had learned two years earlier that Mr. Jemmott was stealing and selling health records.
Hospital officials told the publication that Mr. Jemmott sold the names of 98 patients, and he accessed the private health records of at least 88 of those patients.
Kings County fired Mr. Jemmott in April. He has been negotiating a plea deal with prosecutors since.
“We have zero tolerance for anyone who intentionally violates our patient privacy rules,” Kings County Hospital CEO Sheldon McLeod said in a written statement to the New York Daily News. “The privacy of patient information is an important foundation for the care we provide.”
HENRY KOTULA 