As reported in the previous news story, two women discovered “thousands” of LabCorp patients’ records strewn all over a public road. A LabCorp spokesperson suggested that the records might be pre-1993 records which wouldn’t contain Social Security numbers, but of course, that totally misses the point about privacy, which is more than just the issue…
Category: Health Data
Women Find Thousands of Medical Records Scattered Across Road
Ryan O’Donnell of WOAI reports: Thousands of sensitive medical documents fell out of a truck bed and ended up scattered across the road for just about anyone to see and take. The box belonged to Labcorp, one of the world’s largest companies that analyzes blood work, and contained thousands of patient medical records. […] A…
Identity breach affects hospital
Another entity involved in the February smash-and-grab theft of a computer from Systematic Automation, Inc. has been identified: Presbyterian Intercommunity Hospital. The stolen computer was recovered and the thief arrested. Airan Scruby writes in the Whittier Daily News: About 5,000 past and current employees at Presbyterian Intercommunity Hospital had their private information stolen, officials said…
Panacea or placebo: electronic health records come to the US
Jonathan M. Gitlin writes in Ars Technica: Doctors’ poor handwriting might be a cliché, but being able to accurately read medical records can often be a matter of life and death. The ubiquity of the personal computer has allowed the clinic to enter the digital age, and given that computers excel at managing information, the…
CVS, Texas Settle Over Record Dumping
John Porretto reports for the Associated Press: Caremark Corp. will overhaul its information security system and pay the state of Texas $315,000 to settle a lawsuit that accused the drugstore operator of dumping credit card numbers, medical information and other material from more than 1,000 customers into a garbage container. […] Records allegedly dumped by…
Reaction to NY Times editorial
Jeff Drummond was clearly none too impressed with a recent NY Times‘ editorial. He writes:  […] Let’s Fisk the Times piece: “The National Institutes of Health, which was responsible for safeguarding the data, made things worse by delaying in notifying the patients.” Really? How were things made worse? Was there an improper use that earlier…