Medical notes of three Dudley patients have been sent in error to a stranger in the town prompting concerns over a government agency’s data security. Rod Phillips, 59, was told he was ineligible for a disability pension and took the matter to tribunal. He said he was alarmed to find three people’s medical notes enclosed…
Author: Dissent
AZ: Pinal worker among 4 charged in ID theft
A Pinal County Recorder’s Office employee likely compromised the identities of numerous county residents in a check-washing ring that has led to the arrest of four people, according to search warrants executed in the case. The county employee, Albert Robbs, 51, was arrested last month on charges of theft, identity theft and tampering with public…
Laws target health ID theft
Melinda Mawdsley reports: New federal regulations aimed at detecting potential health identity theft are changing some procedures at Grand Valley businesses. Patients checking in at local hospitals or physicians’ offices can now expect to show photo identification at every visit. That wasn’t always the case, local hospital officials said. Read more in GJsentinel.com
SC: Ex-official alleges Clemson sold computers with private data
Tim Smith reports: A former Clemson University official suing the university alleges in court documents it sold surplus computers with confidential personal information on them and tried to conceal it from the public — allegations the school denies. Eugene Troutman, a former Clemson board secretary, alleges that when Clemson officials learned computers had been sold…
Twitter Gets Hacked, Badly
Michael Arrington reports: Phishing attacks, which hit Twitter over the weekend, are a sign a service has arrived (Facebook has the same problem). But someone hacking into Twitter’s internal admin tools and compromising 33 high profile accounts, including President Elect Barack Obama, has Twitter users freaking out about what to do. Here is Twitter’s official…
Medical errors, apologies and apology laws
Noni MacDonald, MD MSc and Amir Attaran, LLB DPhi have an editorial in the current issue of the Canadian Medical Association Journal that addresses the need for apologies when a medical error occurs. The article describes the history of such laws in the U.S. in the 1990’s: […] Full disclosure to the patient is the…