Jim Pilsbury, has an opinion on EVERYTHING. You probably have heard his name, watched his ‘TV show’, seen his posts, or read his blog.
Yesterday, he filed a FOIA request after noting an ambulance at his across the street neighbor’s house for about an hour, just before midnight. Wanting to know what happened, the next day, he filed a FOIA request.
Pillsbury owns two properties on the road at 10 and 12 Yorks Road. His request asks about an ambulance at 8 Yorks Rd. He was given the report and medical information about a different resident, an across the street neighbor at 5 Yorks. He may have been given protected health information about a person, Pillsbury himself has no ties to.
A few hours later the city responded with the full file, identifying that they did have a file on hand, and they provided medical information to Pillsbury in an unredacted format, without authorization of the patient, treated by the city employees and contracted paramedics.
FU is not a covered entity and is not subject to HIPAA, so this reporting is not a further violation. We are however redacting the information regarding the patient’s condition and age, because unlike the city, we’re doing the right thing.
The takeaway is that someone asked for info on a emergency call for a next door neighbor, which he may or may not have had a personal connection with, and was given information on a different neighbor, across the street. The city should have denied the record request, stating that there was no EMS response at the stated address, or to have handed over the similar address, in redacted form. Shame of the Framingham records department.
If Pillsbury had any relationship with the people who had an emergency, he could have called, or knocked on the door, asking ‘hey, is everything okay?’
