McAlpin v. Wood River Medical Center

• Decision Date: 31 July 1996
• Docket Number: No. 22205,22205
• Citation: 129 Idaho 1,921 P.2d 178
• Parties: Raymond D. McALPIN, SSN 325-50-0390, Claimant-Appellant, v. WOOD RIVER MEDICAL CENTER, Employer, and State of Idaho, Department of Employment, Defendants-Respondents. Boise, May 1996 Term
• Court: Idaho Supreme Court

Page 178

921 P.2d 178

129 Idaho 1

Raymond D. McALPIN, SSN 325-50-0390, Claimant-Appellant, v. WOOD RIVER MEDICAL CENTER, Employer, and State of Idaho, Department of Employment, Defendants-Respondents.

No. 22205.

Supreme Court of Idaho,

Boise, May 1996 Term.

July 31, 1996.

Raymond D. McAlpin, Hailey, pro se appellant.

Michael F. Donovan, Ketchum, for employer-respondent.

TROUT, Justice.

This appeal arises from an order of the Industrial Commission finding the appellant ineligible for unemployment compensation benefits.

I. BACKGROUND

Raymond McAlpin was employed by Wood River Medical Center (Wood River) in August of 1993 to work in its two hospitals as a respiratory therapist. Wood River has a written policy restricting access to patient medical records to only those instances where the patient has given proper consent or where a request is made under court order. In furtherance of this policy, Wood River has a procedure in place to process requests for medical records information that requires the submission of an authorized request form to the medical records department.

Beginning December of 1993, McAlpin began copying various patient medical records by hand without prior permission and without submitting the aforementioned request form. In February of 1994, Wood River's associate director of nursing, Karen Morrison, witnessed McAlpin photocopying patient records. A medical records department employee, Sandra King, also stated that on February 28, 1994, McAlpin told her that he had been making photocopies of information contained in certain patient charts to check his work. On March 14, 1994, McAlpin met with his immediate supervisor, Karen Exon (Exon), and the medical records manager, Sandra Ohman (Ohman), at which time he admitted photocopying records. McAlpin told Exon and Ohman that he did this to acquire information to support a grievance he had filed on February 18, 1994, regarding inadequate patient care at the hospital.

McAlpin finally was discharged on April 13, 1994, for violating patient confidentiality after Morrison witnessed him "flipping" through the Narcotic Record on the previous day. McAlpin applied for unemployment insurance benefits which were granted following a hearing before an Appeals Examiner of the Idaho Department of Employment. Wood River appealed this decision to the Industrial Commission which remanded the case back to the Department of Employment for a more complete record. A second hearing was held after which McAlpin again was granted benefits. Wood River appealed to the Industrial Commission which, on this second appeal, performed a de novo review of the record and issued an order reversing the decision of the Appeals Examiner. The Commission concluded that McAlpin was discharged for misconduct in connection with employment and that he was ineligible for unemployment insurance benefits. McAlpin appeals the Commission's order.

II. STANDARD OF REVIEW

When evaluating a decision by the Industrial Commission, our role is to review questions of fact only to determine whether substantial and competent evidence supports the Commission's findings. Idaho Const., art. 5, § 9; Dewey v. Merrill, 124 Idaho 201, 203, 858 P.2d 740, 742 (1993). We exercise Wood River argues initially that appellate review of the Industrial Commission's denial of benefits is inappropriate here because it has not been supplied with a reporter's transcript of the hearings, as required under I.A.R. 29, and that the burden of presenting an adequate record on appeal lies with the appellant. We note, however, that the transcript of both hearings before the Department of Employment were properly included in the Clerk's Record as exhibits. Accordingly, both documents are properly before the Court in compliance with the appellate rules and our review of the Industrial Commission's order is appropriate.

free review, however, over all questions of law. Id.

III. FINDINGS OF FACT

The Commission's findings of fact in this case accurately reflect both Wood River and McAlpin's versions of the events leading up to McAlpin's termination which are, for the most part, in substantial agreement. It is agreed that, prior to beginning employment with Wood River in August of 1993, McAlpin attended an initial orientation given by the hospital. This orientation included a substantial segment on the importance of patient confidentiality. Within the general context of patient confidentiality, McAlpin also recognized the reasonableness of strict rules within a facility restricting employee access to patient information. Fairly soon after commencing employment at Wood River, however, McAlpin began making handwritten copies of patient records and, at some point, commenced photocopying selected charts of both currently hospitalized patients as well as those recently discharged.

A memorandum outlining the proper procedure for requesting a patient's chart was circulated on October 19, 1993, along with request forms designed for this purpose. Exon, McAlpin's supervisor in the respiratory therapy department, testified that the memorandum was posted in the department and discussed in a meeting with all staff members. She further asserted that McAlpin signed off in a communication log that he was aware of the whereabouts within the department of the medical records request forms. McAlpin neither substantiated Exon's testimony regarding the memorandum nor did he contradict it at the hearing. McAlpin did not use the medical record request form to access the patient charts he copied.

Both parties agree that King, the medical records clerk, arrived at her office on the morning of February 28, 1994, to find that several charts on her desk the afternoon before were missing. Some minutes later McAlpin entered the department to return the missing charts. On March 3, McAlpin returned to the medical records department and questioned King regarding Wood River's protocol for obtaining patient charts. Ohman, the medical records department manager, arrived at the department during this discussion and McAlpin then began "quizzing" her on the subject. Ohman advised McAlpin that the only way he could make copies of patient charts was pursuant to a valid quality assurance study that was approved by his department supervisor. McAlpin subsequently met with Exon and Ohman where he admitted to photocopying records in order to document points raised in a grievance he had filed. McAlpin again was told at this meeting that he could not copy patient information even to support a grievance. Exon and Ohman also requested that McAlpin return the copied information. McAlpin informed them that he had abstracted the information derived from the charts and destroyed the copies he had made.

The only testimony given at the hearings that is directly contradictory on any salient issue is King and McAlpin's versions of the February 28, 1994, incident. King maintained that, when McAlpin came into medical records bearing the missing patient charts, she asked him what he was doing and he responded that he was making copies to check his work. King was somewhat nonplussed by McAlpin's statement and told him that copying records "was wrong, that he had to go through the right channels to get records." McAlpin contended, on the other hand, that King was not agitated in the least that he had taken the patient charts from The Commission ultimately found King's version of the February 28 incident to be more persuasive noting, in its conclusions of law, that McAlpin had "ignored at least two warnings that unilaterally copying medical records was inappropriate," referring to the February 28 and March 3 incidents. This Court will not displace the Commission's findings of fact if they are supported by substantial though conflicting evidence. Davis v. Howard O. Miller Co., 107 Idaho 1092, 1094, 695 P.2d 1231, 1233 (1984) (citing Meyer v. Skyline Mobile Homes, 99 Idaho 754, 589 P.2d 89 (1979)). The weighing and evaluation of conflicting testimony is left to the sound discretion of the Commission and will not be disturbed on appeal unless clearly erroneous. Ross v. Tupperware Mfg. Co./Premark, 122 Idaho 641, 643, 837 P.2d 316, 318 (1992).

medical records and that King told him that he "didn't need any type of consent" to do so.

Although the Industrial Commission was not able to "observe and judge the demeanor of the witness[es]" in this case, id., the Commission's resolution of this conflict is sound. The medical records department is responsible for holding all patient charts after discharge from the hospital. The ability to find a particular patient record at any given time after discharge is essential both for follow-up care and for potential rehospitalization. Disorder in this department simply cannot be tolerated. King arrived at the department early on the morning of February 28, however, to find her normally-locked office door ajar and several patient charts missing. McAlpin maintained that King was not at all concerned about the missing charts and further advised him that if "no one is here, you can come and get [the charts] yourself. Just make sure that you put them back." A flippant disregard of the whereabouts of vital patient records by an employee of this department is clearly inconsistent with an ordered system for which any hint of disarray is anathema. Accordingly, we find the Commission's resolution of this testimonial conflict to be sound.

The remainder of McAlpin's contentions regarding the Commission's findings of facts are similarly...