A nurse discussed my medical problems in front of other patients and staff members. I made a complaint with the hospital. Can I sue them?

Of course - you can sue anyone. Will you win any damages? Highly unlikely. Basically zero. Rounding up testimony will be very difficult, for starters, and proving that the discussion was anything other than normal decibel level close to other patients will be even more difficult. Other staff are expected to hear about your medical condition - you have no right to privacy there.

You really don't go into detail about your situation. Detail is necessary.

Was it shift change and the nurse you had giving report to the oncoming nurse and visitors were in the area? Were the visitors even paying attention to what the nurses were saying?

Was your name used or your room number?

One thing about hospitals is that there is very little privacy. Most of us nurses, when giving report at shift change and other times, refer to our patients by their room number rather than their name.

Can you sue? You can try because anyone can sue for anything. Is it a winable case? No because it's not medical malpractice. It may be a HIPAA violation, but without further details from you I can't determine whether it is. With HIPAA you can't sue and win damage money, but rather the hospital and/or nurse involved will get reprimanded and possibly fined.

What? Do you think you will get some big payday out of this? Why is your first inclination to sue? What damages did you incur? Did anyone know you in that area?

Do you understand that a large part of the high cost of health care is the high cost of liability insurance? Because of people like you who immediately think about filing suit.

AS the others have noted, you can file suit over anything. But the likelihood of winning such a suit is small. In fact, I think you will be hard pressed to find an attorney to even take it on.

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Do you understand that a large part of the high cost of health care is the high cost of liability insurance? Because of people like you who immediately think about filing suit.

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Bravo! Thank you Scott. I don't even want to go into how much my med/mal insurance costs me yearly because of people like this.

You can sue anyone you want. What really needs to happen in this country is that you, as a claimant, particularly in a case like this, should be required to pay all the legal defense costs if you lose . What harm occurred? Look up the definition of a Tort.

Did she name you when she discussed the medication condition, if so, you can file a HIPAA complaint but law suit is a waste. How To File a Complaint