Next SectionEric Williams: Privacy at Risk
"My privacy has been invaded,' Eric Williams, dressed in a blue stocking cap and a heavy white jacket, inscribed with the insignia of the team he plays for, told a reporter on the 9:00 p.m. news broadcast on November 24, 1997.
Eric Williams is the Dallas Cowboys' 6'6", 328 pound Pro Bowl offensive tackle. During the middle of the 1994 season, as the Cowboys were in the midst of a hotly contested bid for the Superbowl, Williams severely injured his knee in an automobile accident. The injury ended his season. As The Dallas Morning News reported on October 25, 1994.
"Mr. Williams was traveling westbound on Interstate 635 about 3:15 am when he tried to take the northbound exit onto the Dallas North Tollway, State Department of Public Safety (DPS) said. He clipped the guardrail as he was going at least 75 mph in his Mercedes 600SL."
A DPS spokesman in Austin reported that "Mr. Williams appeared to have been drinking but that alcohol was not a factor in the accident." Consequently, the state trooper on the scene did not order a blood test.
Williams had to be extracted from his mangled car and was then rushed to Parkland Memorial Hospital. Upon his admittance doctors in the emergency room administered a blood test. The DPS spokesman went on to say that if the test showed "a blood alcohol level of 0.10(percent) or greater we'll pursue a DWI investigation."
Two days later The Dallas Morning News broke the story that an anonymous source "close to the team" stated that Williams' blood alcohol level was measured after he arrived at Parkland at 0.17 percent - well above the 0.10 percent legal limit. DPS officials responded that they had no knowledge of this. They then "requested that Mr. Williams make his medical records available to us [DPS]." Williams apparently refused to release his records, as did Parkland. The hospitals legal affairs director indicated that, according to the law, DPS must first subpoena the lab results because Mr. Williams was not officially a DWI suspect when he was admitted. Following this exchange, the matter was presumably dropped. It was no longer news worthy, at least for a while.
Williams' case surfaced again on September 12, 1997, when Gerald Brookman, a former Parkland computer records specialist and the administrator responsible for on-line patient records at the time Williams was in the hospital, filed a suit against the hospital and several of its employees. He alleged that the hospital had terminated his employment about two years earlier "for the sole reason that he refused to participate in the conspiracy to obstruct justice in two separate inquiries by proper legal authorities." Specifically, Brookman claimed that he was ordered to "not cooperate" in DPS's investigation into the dissemination of Williams' lab results.
Following up on this story members of KDFW's Fox 4's I-Team obtained a copy of a Parkland breach of computer security report which describes one instance of unauthorized entry into the hospital's computing system from a remote location identified as the 7 East Nurses station. It tells the story of how "Mary" obtained Eric Williams' records. The following is an excerpt from that report. The names have been changed to protect anonymity:
"On Thursday 10-27-94, Bob, the director of Respiratory Care, reported that one of his employees, Mary, had obtained an unauthorized lab report for a computer on 7 East. Terri, an employee of 7 East had reported that she heard Mary talking on the phone to what sounded like some type of news reporter- Mary agreed to provide the other party with the lab test results of the blood work up on patient Eric Williams ... Mary then attempted to gain access to the 7 East computer by asking unit clerk Anne to use Anne's computer code to open the computer so that she (that is, Mary) could use the computer to pull up a patient's lab results. Anne refused to use her code, telling Mary that the computer was down. Mary then left the area. Terri then informed Anne why Mary wanted to access the computer for the lab results of Eric Williams' blood test.
On 10-27-94, Anne witnessed Mary removing paper work from the 7 Fast computer and placing it in her clipboard. This occurred about 11:30 hrs. Anne informed Terri and they reported this to the Unit Mgr. Kathleen. Kathleen contacted Information Systems and requested all of the items, which had been requested and printed out on the 7 East, computer terminal between 11:00 hrs. and 12:00 hrs. on 10-27-94. At 11:36 hrs. the lab test results on Mr. Eric Williams was requested and printed out on the 7 East computer."
The report concluded: "Mary was not assigned to work on 7 Fast, she had no business being there and was not authorized to access the computer on the records of Eric Williams."
Mary apparently was not the only person to access Williams' medical records during his stay. On the newscast aired on Fox channel 4 at 9:00 p.m. November 24, 1997 Brookman claimed that 1754 separate Parkland employees had viewed Williams' on-line computer records during a 7 day period. One of these, Jean, a Parkland database analyst, admitted in a deposition filed on January 17, 1997 that she had looked at Williams' medical record:
Q. "And what was the purpose of doing that?"
A. "Curiosity. I'm a Cowboy fan. I had season tickets to the Cowboys."
Jean acknowledged that her actions were "inappropriate." "I agree that I shouldn't have done it." She went on to say that Walter, another Parkland database analyst, brought Williams' records up on his computer screen while she joined him in the small cubicle that served as Walter's office at Parkland. Gerald Brookman reportedly also stood nearby in the entrance and observed what they were doing. Although Walter only admitted to accessing "demographic data" Walter conceded he, too, had viewed Williams' medical records.
Why? "I'm a Cowboy fan." What did he want to see? "Nothing in particular." Although, as a database analyst Walter had access to patient records, on questioning he acknowledged that he did not have a need to access "anything regarding Mr. Williams."
Brookman also claims that the blood alcohol level on Williams' lab report was changed 6 times. According to him the first reading was 0.07, the second was 0.17, followed by four other changes. (Whether Brookman himself should have had access to William's lab results is questionable, although as a records specialist he may have legitimate concerns about the alterations.)