Barbara Cotter reports on a breach at Colorado Springs Hospital – Memorial Health System:
A Colorado Springs city employee has lost her job for allegedly accessing the records of 2,500 Memorial Hospital patients without cause, and a police investigation is under way, officials reported Monday.
Lori Niell, a nurse with the city’s occupational health clinic, was an authorized user of Physician Link, an encrypted, password-protected electronic records system. But she was not a Memorial employee, and had no medical or other work-related reason for accessing the records of the hospital’s, said hospital spokesman Brian Newsome.
“From my understanding, she was accessing the records when she wasn’t at work,” Newsome said. “She wasn’t doing it as part of her job.”
The hospital is contacting the patients by mail, and is working with the U.S. Office of Civil Rights, which is responsible for investigating patient privacy complaints.
Officials said Niell allegedly accessed the records for “personal” reasons, but did not elaborate. However, Newsome said it did not appear the records were being accessed to commit identify fraud.
Read more on The Gazette.
Note: The Gazette edited their story subsequent to me posting this on this blog. If you read the current version of the story, it is somewhat a weird story.