CBC News reports:
A doctor with Covenant Health is under investigation by Alberta’s College of Physicians and Surgeons for improperly accessing electronic health records to find out information about her partner’s ex-husband.
The matter was referred to the college by Covenant Health, after an investigation by Alberta Information and Privacy Commissioner Frank Work.
Work found that the physician, who worked in the emergency room of an Edmonton hospital, had contravened the Health Information Act.
Read more on CBC.ca Here’s the reminder on the need to educate and remind employees:
The investigation found it was common practice for staff to simply access electronic health records using whatever account happened to be open at the time.
Covenant Health has taken a number of remedial actions since then. They include reminding the 12 physicians whose accounts were improperly accessed to log out of Netcare, and implementing a smart card system for computer terminals.