After A Patient Left Her Personal Journal Behind At A Dental Office, Two Employees Read The Contents Out Loud On Social Media
Premier Dental Group of Knoxville and its workers are now in potential legal trouble — and it won't be the first time.
Andrea Piacquadio | Pexels | Canva Pro A Knoxville, Tennessee dental practice has sparked outrage after two employees posted the private information of a patient to social media.
The video they created likely opens both the practice and the two employees to legal action and is only the latest incident to land the practice in legal hot water.
Two employees of Premier Dental Group of Knoxville read a patient's private journal and posted the contents on Snapchat.
The incident began when a patient of Premier Dental Group left her journal behind at the practice's offices. It was found by two employees, who created a video reading the journal which they posted to Snapchat with the caption, "found a patient's journal and now it's story time lmfao."
That alone is abhorrent and unethical on its face, and has left many online outraged. The video was reposted across multiple social media platforms, including TikTok, Reddit, and Facebook, where viewers have been appalled by the callousness and cruelty of the two employees in the video.
The video itself appears to have been deleted, but the anger it sparked has lingered, especially given the extremely sensitive nature of the content in the journal.
The video included extremely private details of the owner's medical problems, which some believe is a HIPAA violation.
Across social media platforms, people have called for the two women in the video to be terminated immediately, including in posts and comments on Premier Dental Group of Knoxville's since-shuttered social media pages.
However, some legal experts say that blowbacks are likely to reach much farther than that. The most shocking section of the video is that in which the two employees read harrowing and heartbreaking details of the journal owner's struggle with a dire illness while laughing at and mocking her condition.
Speaking to local NBC affiliate WBIR, attorney Dan Bosch said the employees' actions could constitute a violation of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, or HIPAA, federal legislation which regulates the privacy and security of people's medical information and opens Premier Dental Group to licensure and civil penalties.
"This was a poor decision by the employees of the dental practice and, while their intent may not have been evil or angry and it was just a mistake, it shouldn't have been done," Bosch told WBIR. "It has certainly subjected their dental practice… to liability, both administratively, by way of licensing, and civilly, by way of money."
Premier Dental Group posted an apology for the incident on Facebook, saying it does not reflect their values.
In a statement posted to its company Facebook page, Premier Dental Group of Knoxville wrote that it was aware of the video and called its employees' actions "disrespectful and unprofessional."
Facebook
The practice went on to say, "We deeply regret this incident and the hurt [it] has caused," and extended "our sincere apologies to the individual or individuals affected by this video, as well as to their family and friends."
The practice then claimed the incident "does not reflect the values of Premier Dental Group of Knoxville", that the company was launching an internal investigation, and that "the employees involved have been addressed," whatever that means.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, the company's apology has not gone over well with people online, who felt that it was insufficient given the damage caused and that it did not seem to acknowledge the magnitude of its employees' actions.
In its apology, the practice went on to say that "actions speak louder than words" and that it plans to work to "uphold the trust" of its patients and staff. Given the company's history, however, that has struck many as a tall order.
The incident is the latest in a history of legal issues at Premier Dental Group of Knoxville.
Should this incident wind up in a courtroom — or multiple courtrooms, for that matter — it would not be the first time. In 2023, Premier Dental Group agreed to pay back almost $1 million in false claims it submitted to TennCare, Tennessee's Medicaid system, between 2016 and 2020.
The lawsuit, filed by the FBI, the federal and Tennessee justice departments, and the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation, found that Dr. Michael Sawaf and his practice knowingly violated the False Claims Act, a federal fraud law, and the Tennessee Medicaid False Claims Act, by submitting false claims for dental services.
Two of Sawaf's employees were also ordered to pay restitution for similar crimes. Claims included dental care that was billed as if it was provided by credentialed dentists but in fact was performed by uncredentialed dentists.
Social media users claiming to have worked with the women in the Snapchat video have also alleged that they were fired from previous jobs for racist attacks, including the use of hate speech in the workplace.
John Sundholm is a news and entertainment writer who covers pop culture, social justice and human interest topics.