CBC News reports that a doctor who allegedly improperly accessed patient files for over two years continues to be employed by the facility, who didn’t even notify patients when they first discovered the breach:
Although New Brunswick’s Department of Health says it could step in to remove the doctor involved in a privacy incident at Moncton’s Georges Dumont hospital from his position, it has no plans to do so.
Last February, the Vitalité Health Network discovered radio oncologist Dr. Fernando Rojas accessed the files of 142 patients at the Dr. Georges-L.-Dumont University Hospital Centre without permission from two computers between Sept. 6, 2010 and Nov. 30, 2012.
Read more on CBC.
This may turn out to be a cautionary tale in terms of auditing access to files and breach response. So far, Vitalité seems to be doing a lot wrong. Do the female employees whose records were improperly accessed need to band together and go out on strike to get this doctor disciplined? While I respect Vitalité’s need to investigate and the doctor’s rights, this has gone on too long and a decision should have been made already. Vitalité is sending an awful message by its lack of prompt transparency and lack of disciplinary action.