In today’s Government Health IT Notebook, there is a statement by Deborah Peel, M.D., Founder and Chair of Patient Privacy Rights: The story last week on e-prescribing [“$3 billion annual savings estimated for Medicare e-prescribing,†GovHealthITcom, March 4] does not mention the elephant in the room: that every prescription in the nation has been data-mined…
Category: Health Data
Dialysis patients' SSN and health info on laptop stolen from DaVita employee's car
On March 3, dialysis services providers DVA Renal Healthcare, Inc. notified [pdf] the NH DOJ that a laptop stolen from an employee’s vehicle contained unencrypted personal information on current or former patients. Ann DesRuisseaux, DaVita’s Assistant General Counsel, did not indicate the date of the theft itself, saying only that the company “recently” discovered the…
NZ: Hospital IDs focus of privacy debate
Stephen Bell Wellington writes in Computerworld: With the renewed focus on privacy in both New Zealand and Australia, Melbourne-based health software company TrakHealth has had to defend the approach it took to a public health patient-tracking system it recently developed for Brazil. The system will provide every Brazilian with an identifying number and plastic card…
UK: NHS baby data found in store
Kevin Barnes writes in the Croydon Guardian: A sensitive document detailing the treatments of premature babies at Mayday Hospital was discovered at a supermarket in Sutton. An investigation was ordered after a shopper stumbled on the highly confidential patient records while browsing a DVD rack at Morrisons. John Dunne, 61, discovered the names, dates of…
Hospital donor files compromised
Markian Hawryluk and Betsy Q. Cliff report in The Bulletin: A computer virus may have exposed to outside eyes the names, credit card numbers, dates of birth and home addresses of more than 11,500 individuals who donated to Cascade Healthcare Community, the parent company of St. Charles in Bend and Redmond. The virus penetrated the…
Stolen medical records can be costly, deadly
Tom Kisken writes in the Ventura County Star: When identity theft happens in hospitals or medical offices, money may be the least of the victim’s worries. […] Often, the crimes involve an employee who has access to records and sells them, [Pam Dixon of the World Privacy Forum] said. The buyers start cautiously. They send…