What started as an uneasy relationship with her in-laws ended in a nightmare for 33-year-old Shanice. A relative of her boyfriend, who worked at the Catharina Hospital in Eindhoven, found information about her through her medical file. She used this for a smear campaign against Shanice. It caused so much tension in Shanice and her boyfriend’s relationship that they even broke up for a while. Now that the truth is slowly emerging, she searches for justice. “She not only took away my right to privacy, but so much more,” says Shanice.
Shanice and her boyfriend Tom were still in contact with his family at the beginning of their relationship. But when she became pregnant with their first son, she noticed a change. “Remarks were made by family members about my Moluccan origins. I suspect that the tensions in contact had to do with that,” she says.
Shanice and Tom decide to move and not share their new address with the family. “We wanted peace and quiet and to be untraceable for them.” She was therefore surprised when a card from a relative of Tom fell on the mat on her son’s first birthday.
“I contacted her to ask how she got our address. She first said that it was because I had debts with my health insurance. That was not correct. Then she said that the municipality had given the address, but they don’t just do that,” says Shanice.
More letters from the family member followed, in which Shanice felt she was slandered. “It was suggested that I would cheat,” she says. It remained unclear to Shanice how the family member came to their address. That’s why she decided to investigate.
“I felt watched and threatened.”
Tom’s relative worked for years at an outpatient clinic at the Catharina Hospital, where the family is in the system. Shanice had a strong suspicion that her in-laws came to their address in this way, with all the consequences that entailed. “I felt very threatened and watched because she had come to our new address,” she reflects.
Shanice called the police, who could do little for her. She contacted the hospital and had a conversation with an employee of the Catharina Hospital in February of this year. “After entering my patient number, pages of evidence emerged that the family member had looked at my medical file. It showed that she had logged in. My file contained private information that even my parents did not even know about me,” says Shanice.
In addition, the family member also appeared to have looked at the medical files of her boyfriend and her 7-year-old son. To get into the file, she even used the so-called ‘breaking the glass principle’. This is a kind of emergency button that provides access to a medical file in critical cases.
“She should never have used this emergency button,” says Shanice. The employee took early retirement a few years ago, which means the hospital cannot prosecute her within the healthcare institution.
“Much more than my right to privacy taken away.”
Yet Shanice did not leave it at that and together with her boyfriend she filed a report for the unlawful access to their files. The Public Prosecution Service announced on Thursday that it will prosecute the former police officer for computer trespassing. “But she took away much more than my right to privacy,” says Shanice.
For example, Shanice felt forced to share things from her medical file with her parents that they did not yet know. The situation has also had a major impact on her family. “It caused a lot of tension in my relationship. We even broke up for a while. My son is not stupid either and has often heard us argue about this,” says Shanice.
Now that the truth is coming out through the police investigation, Shanice wants to make Tom’s relative understand what she has done to her family. “And I hope that people who have access to personal data cannot do this to others,” she says.
Despite all the tension and misery it has brought, Tom and Shanice have emerged stronger together. “She didn’t manage to break us up and it actually brought us closer together,” Tom says.
Response from Catharina Hospital
The Catharina Hospital confirms in a comment that an employee had unlawful access to a patient file in 2022. “We deeply regret this situation. This should not have happened,” the hospital wrote.
According to the hospital, the sanction policy for this could not be applied because the employee had already been out of service for a long time at the time of the discovery in February. The Catharina Hospital says it is cooperating with the investigation by the police and the judiciary.
The hospital indicates that employees can normally only access the patient file if there is a treatment relationship with a patient. If an employee still wants to inspect the file, the employee must, in accordance with the ‘breaking the glass principle’, enter a reason why he or she wants to access the patient file. That action is registered in a system.
According to the hospital, random checks are carried out every so often to determine whether the ‘breaking the glass principle’ has been applied. They are obliged to do so according to national standards. During previous spot checks, the files of Shanice, her boyfriend and her son were never noticed. “We sincerely apologize for this,” the hospital wrote.
In addition, the hospital will look at how it can strengthen the system and increase the number of random samples. She also points out to employees how to handle patient data safely and responsibly, for example by logging out of a computer when someone leaves the workplace.