David Willberg reports:
An employee at St. Joseph’s Hospital in Estevan has been fired following a privacy breach at the hospital.
A regular audit of the pharmaceutical information program determined that the employee improperly accessed the records of seven individuals. The information program is a record of prescription medications that have been filled at community pharmacies in Saskatchewan. It is used for treatment and care of patients in a proper manner.
“That information is important for physicians for the treatment of patients,” said St. Joseph’s Hospital CEO Greg Hoffort.
Read more on SaskLife. The breach was discovered in mid-June, it took them about a week to investigate, and they took prompt action with respect to the employee and notifying affected patients. They also apologized to employees.
Although the improper conduct took place over “several months,” I can understand that spotting a problem that doesn’t affect a tremendous number of patients may be harder to detect. It sounds like the hospital did a good job here.