We were contacted by a 45-year-old Philadelphia man with HIV who felt the confidentiality of his medical information had been flagrantly violated.
A health care worker visited his home last year to perform wound care. During the visit the worker told his uncle to keep the children in the household away from him because he had HIV.
The warning about casual contact demonstrated a disturbing lack of accurate information about HIV transmission. It also clearly violated state and federal confidentiality laws.
The team of Staff Attorney Adrian Lowe and Executive Director Ronda Goldfein contacted the home health care company about the incident. Thankfully, the company accepted responsibility and agreed to pay our client $15,000. Equally important, the company agreed to implement HIV transmission and confidentiality training for its staff.