A doctor is sued for throwing away his computer with private patient records in the trash

“Bortnick found himself at the middle of a legal maelstrom last month when KCTV, Channel 5, obtained his patient records and began contacting the patients.

The station got the records from a scavenger who picked up the computer from the curb of Bortnick’s Mission Hills home, retrieved the records from the computer and turned them over to KCTV. Bortnick then sought and obtained a restraining order against the station barring it from contacting the patients or using the records.

The station has appealed the restraining order to the Kansas Supreme Court. KCTV is urging the court to overturn the order on the ground that it is an unconstitutional prior restraint.

Although the restraining order remains in place, on June 30 KCTV broadcast a story about Bortnick’s alleged carelessness in trashing the computer and interviewed a patient who was not identified by name. The patient expressed dismay that records she assumed were confidential had been treated so carelessly.”