Regina CPR teacher violated privacy after bringing students to emergency scene

A volunteer CPR instructor with the Saskatchewan Health Authority (SHA) violated a person’s health privacy when she took a class of three students to a patient’s Regina home as the patient was having a cardiac arrest.

That’s the latest ruling in a report Saskatchewan Information and Privacy Commissioner Ronald Kruzeniski released on Sept. 9.

The patient was later pronounced dead at the scene when a EMS crew arrived at the home.

As part of the report, Kruzeniski recommends the SHA should contact the students to request them not to disclose the patient’s health information to others, and that volunteers with the SHA should “take the mandatory privacy course” required of SHA employees.

The report stems from an investigation his office conducted into the incident.

The report shows that the CPR instructor was a volunteer with the SHA and registered with the health authority as a non-practising Emergency Medical Responder at the time of the incident, March 18, 2018.

She was teaching CPR to a St. John’s Ambulance class of three adult students, the report said. It was during the class that she received an emergency call from the health authority’s Regina Communication Centre saying a patient had gone into cardiac arrest.

She “indicated that her ‘immediate reaction was to take the students with her so they could experience the call and perhaps undertake CPR. She grabbed the (automated external defibrillator) and they left immediately,’ ” the report said.

The teacher and the students arrived at the patient’s home before an EMS crew did. The instructor and one student “moved the patient from the bed to the floor. However, it was determined that resuscitation was not possible,” Kruzeniski reported.

After that, two other medical first responders and two paramedics arrived; a paramedic declared the patient dead.

The incident was first reported to the professional conduct committee at the Saskatchewan College of Paramedics.

The college and the teacher signed a consensual complaint resolution agreement on Dec. 13. The teacher acknowledged the privacy breach, based on the provincial Health Information Protection Act.

The incident was then reported to Kruzeniski’s office Jan. 11.