Chandra Lye reports:
A briefcase containing private patient information was stolen from a Covenant Health employee last month.
Officials told CTV News that the briefcase was taken from the worker’s vehicle on December 23.
Read more on CTV Edmonton. Covenant notified the 41 people whose information was in the briefcase on January 8, even though by then, the briefcase had been found by a citizen and returned to them.
In March 2011, Covenant reported that 233 patient folders containing about 3,600 photos and two videos were on an unencrypted hard drive that had gone missing after an employee was packing up his office on January 17 and left the drive under his desk. When he returned to the office on January 28, he noticed it missing.
Incidents such as these remind health care entities of the need to train, re-train, remind, and discipline employees who take shortcuts or think, “Oh, it will be okay there for just a few minutes…”
I wish every employee who carries/takes PHI with them would just think, “Do I really care whether these patients’ records are stolen? If I do, I shouldn’t leave them in my car. Period.”