Ryan Luby reports:
While battling a serious illness, no one wants to worry about their medical records ending up in the wrong hands or in the wrong place. Yet, while acting on a tip, 4 Investigates learned there were concerns raised about patient privacy at the University of New Mexico Cancer Center, or UNMCC.
4 Investigates analyzed roughly two months of e-mails involving key staffers at UNMCC, obtained through a request made under New Mexico’s Inspection of Public Records Act.
The e-mails, from July and August, revealed how a doctor inadvertently left two patients’ files in the parking lot of Lovelace Women’s Hospital. The facility located them, contacted UNM, and returned the files.
The doctor at UNM told the university’s privacy officer that she assumed she had left the files at home. She acknowledged the situation was “very serious” and expressed relief that the files were found.
In a separate instance, a CD containing a patient’s information went missing at the UNM Cancer Center itself.
Read more on KOB.
Of course, these types of incidents likely happen every day in pretty much every hospital, and it would be unfair to make it sound as if UNMCC is any worse than any other facility. Perhaps their only serious failing (from my perspective) was the absence of a written policy requiring employees to report missing data or devices promptly.