If you are going to suspend someone without pay, please do the investigation promptly. And if you find the employee innocent, make sure coworkers know that they were cleared of all wrongdoing. Also, if innocent, I think you should pay the employee the wages they lost.

I am a nurse. One good thing about healthcare records going on computers is that you can easily track who accesses what. So it is easy to tell whether someone accessed records inappropriately.

Make sure you are giving your employees training on HIPAA, patient privacy, and professional conduct.

Very true, but not the part people are disagreeing with. Until the investigation is complete, nobody can say there has *been* a violation.

If it’s not a big deal when it’s somebody else’s money, it’s not a big deal when it’s your money, either. No arguments that it has to be investigated, and that HIPAA violations are a huge problem, or even suspending the employee while the investigation is going on, but like everyone else, suspending without pay really leaves a bad taste.

Were I the employee, I would patiently wait to be exonerated, then quit.

I’m still with the others in disagreeing with your advice on this one. If the company’s position is that three days is not that big a deal, then they should pay the employee as a cost of doing business. It is good for morale in general in addition to assuming innocence until proven guilty. Also, as someone who has conducted investigations, it can take well over three days due to many unforeseen reasons.

HIPAA is very different than normal workplace problems. The facility can face huge fines for HIPAA violations and a lot of places fire for every HIPAA violation–no matter how small.

Agreed. If an employee was accused of theft or abuse then I would consider suspension. This is a case where an employee possibly looked in a confidential file and spoke about it. There is no threat to patient or staff safety. There is no threat to property. If the accusation was that the employee was looking into multiple records, stealing soc security #s and selling them, then the employee would need to be removed.
At this point, the accusation is just gossip. I’d hate to work at a facility where every time a patient claims this a nurse/surgeon/tech is suspended. Investigate while the employee is working. If there is credible evidence, then suspend the employee while the rest of the investigation continues. Until that point, let the employee continue working.

It is also notable that in most states an unpaid suspension creates a work separation issue and is typically grounds to file for unemployment benefits.