Victims of nurse’s privacy breach plan to file civil suit

Victims of a Powell River nurse who was fired — then reinstated — after accessing private medical files of colleagues and other people she knew say they are planning to pursue a civil suit to obtain justice.

Michelle Chisholm, 43, a licensed practical nurse at Willingdon Creek Village care home, was fired by Vancouver Coastal Health in January 2015 for snooping into the files of 14 people in 21 instances over 11 months in 2014.

She was reinstated in March 2016 after the B.C. Nurses’ Union successfully grieved the termination.

In April, the B.C. Labour Relations Board dismissed Vancouver Coastal Health’s second appeal and upheld the arbitrator’s findings that termination was “excessive,” and that Chisholm has expressed remorse and could be rehabilitated.

“I’m absolutely disgusted by it,” said a co-worker who asked not to be named. She had her private records improperly accessed by Chisholm and has received no apology. “There was no justice in any of this.”

The message the arbitrator’s decision sends is “our privacy doesn’t matter a thing.”

At the time of the breaches, the co-worker’s partner was Chisholm’s former husband. She works at the same facility as Chisholm.

VCH’s appeal was based on the argument that Chisholm’s expression of remorse and rehabilitation occurred after she was terminated, and couldn’t be used to determine whether the firing was appropriate “because it would require the employer at the time of the discharge decision to weigh facts not in existence, and which may never exist.”

In its decision, the board cited testimony during the hearing that Chisholm said she was “overwhelmed” during the meeting with her employer and that “it was all a blur.” The hearing also heard she was stressed due to a death in her family and her daughter’s move to live with her biological father.

“I accept the union’s argument that the arbitrator’s findings indicate there are reasons why (Chisholm) did not express remorse during the investigation stage,” wrote adjudicator Bruce Wilkins. He also noted the arbitrator had taken “public interest considerations” into account in making his decision.

Chisholm’s co-worker said she knows of at least 24 people who got a notice from VCH about a privacy breach, and believes there could be more. She has set up a Facebook page for other potential victims.