Johannesburg – The Health Professions Council of South Africa expressed alarm on Wednesday at the media’s “violation” of patient confidentiality. “We have noted, with horror and dismay, media articles indicating that the press are in possession of confidential medical reports violating patient confidentiality,” HPCSA registrar Boyce Mkhize said in a statement. This was not only…
Category: Health Data
Bits ‘n Pieces
In the justice system: Thomas Alan Thompson, a preacher at Calvary Baptist Church, was arrested and charged with identity theft after allegedly praying preying upon his congregation. More. Janice Washington, a Registry of Motor Vehicles employee working at the Braintree branch was arrested on March 19 on federal identity theft charges for selling genuine birth…
Ohio personnel files found in auctioned file cabinets
The Associated Press reports that someone who purchased file cabinets at a state surplus auction discovered that Ohio personnel files containing Social Security numbers, medical histories, and salaries of five former state employees were still in the cabinet. According to man, when he contacted the Ohio Department of Administrative Services about the situation, first they…
Bits ‘n Pieces
In the justice system: Following up on a story here: former State Department employee Dwayne F. Cross was sentenced to 12 months of probation and ordered to perform 100 hours of community service for illegally accessing more than 150 confidential passport application files. More. Identity theft to obtain medical services is not new, but now…
Mass. General paperwork for 66 patients lost on Red Line train
Milton J. Valencia reports that documents containing the personal medical information of at least 66 patients at Massachusetts General Hospital was lost this month when an employee apparently left them on an MBTA train. The lost billing records contained names, dates of birth, and medical information such as diagnoses and the name of the provider…
LifeWatch notifies patients of exposed data
LifeWatch Corp., a company specializing in ambulatory health monitoring, has notified (pdf) the New Hampshire Attorney General’s Office that due to a configuration error, some patient files were available on public areas of their web site for about three weeks last month. Personal information in the exposed files included the patients’ names, dates of birth,…