Category: Health Data

It’s easy to see how the new HITECH requirements are having an impact. Covered entities are not only notifying HHS of breaches affecting over 500 patients, but are posting notices on their web sites and often issuing press releases to help meet the notification requirements. Here’s a press release issued today by Dr. Ward Morris:…

Laptop thefts are also everywhere. A laptop containing hundreds of patients’ names and medical details has been stolen from a city health centre. The computer was taken from an office at the Mary Potter Centre in Hyson Green. NHS bosses have now written to the 211 physiotherapy patients affected to apologise after the theft, in…

Paper breaches, from small to large, are everywhere. Confidential information on patients at Sligo General Hospital was made public due to staff mistakenly faxing the details to the wrong number.  While in a separate incident more details were leaked when a piece of paper with a patients name and hospital number was found outside the…

Dom Nicastro reports: Covered entities and business associates reporting breaches of unsecured personal health information (PHI) affecting 500 or more individuals to the Office for Civil Rights (OCR) together could spend nearly $1 billion because of those breaches. According to a report from the Health Information Trust Alliance (HITRUST), 108 entities submitting the breach reports…