Cindy Harnett and Nick Wells report that a Victoria urologist is under investigation by health authorities over allegations he photographed an unconscious, morbidly obese male patient and sent the picture to a friend. Read more on The Province. There are lots of understandable reasons why a doctor might want to share an unusual or interesting case…
Category: Health Data
California medical privacy breach stats, updated
Several weeks ago, I posted some medical privacy breach statistics I obtained from California (see the chart here) This week, I found some more recent figures. I have no idea why the numbers for some entries do not match what they provided me with previously. But it would appear from the more recent figures that…
X-rays involving more than 15,000 Henry Ford Health System patients stolen from storage warehouse
Associated Press reports that more than 15,000 X-rays of Henry Ford Health System patients were stolen from a warehouse in May. Read more here. The health system posted a substitute notice on July 16: Henry Ford Health System is notifying patients about their health information after old X-ray films were stolen from a storage warehouse before…
OR: Samaritan Health investigates improper disposal of medical records
Hundreds of medical records found unshredded in the trash. Again. This time it’s Samaritan Family Medicine Resident Clinic, part of Samaritan Health Services. Police were called but did nothing because, once again, no law was broken. It is disturbing that in 2013, most states still do not have data security or breach laws that include paper…
Govt. moves to dismiss lawsuit over Dorn V.A. laptop breach
The government has moved to dismiss a potential class action lawsuit after the theft of a laptop with PHI from the Dorn V.A. Medical Center. Their argument: plaintiffs have not demonstrated that the information has fallen into the wrong hands or caused any actual harm to plaintiffs. Read more on Main Justice.
California reveals monetary penalties issued to hospitals in 2013 for medical privacy breaches
California’s Department of Public Health (CDPH) has fined nine hospitals this year for failure to prevent unauthorized access to patient medical information, as required by Section 1280.15 of California’s Health and Safety Code. The fines were issued for breaches reported in previous years. Frustratingly, the state’s web page that reports the penalties and underlying reports…