When the editors of Psychiatric Times were alerted that they had inadvertently revealed some names and email addresses of those who responded to a survey on ethical dilemmas, they did the right thing. In a letter dated June 10 on their web site, they wrote: Dear Readers, Not long ago, we posted a survey on…
Category: Health Data
Hospital employee and three others accused of stealing patients' identities
Meredith Cohn reports: A federal grand jury has indicted four people, including a former employee of the University of Maryland Medical Center, in what prosecutors said was a scheme to steal patients’ identities. The 17-count indictment was unsealed Thursday after the arrests of Kenneth Elliott McDowell, 47; Wendy Hinton, 21; and William White, 54, all…
Lawsuit alleges Tufts faxed patient records to workplace, without permission
Chelsea Conaboy reports on an alleged breach that reminds us that everyone’s privacy counts, and every breach – even a simple mistake – can have devastating consequences for the patient: A patient of Tufts Medical Center has filed a case against the hospital and a primary care doctor there alleging that documents including her medical…
(update) 357 people affected by documents stolen from Wake Forest Baptist
Richard Craver reports: Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center has told the state Attorney General’s office that 357 individuals have been affected by a security breach involving missing documents, some of which contained Social Security and medical-records numbers. On June 1, a statement from the center said it fired an employee, Linda Bowden Turner, who had…
(follow-up) UniCare Life & Health Insurance Class Action Settlement
How did I not know about this lawsuit – or did I just forget? In any event, Kimberly Mirando posts the news on Top Class Actions: UniCare Life and Health Insurance Company and Wellpoint, Inc. have reached a class action lawsuit settlement over allowing members’ private information to be leaked online. As a result, UniCare members…
Diabetes research halted after Cape Breton privacy breach
More on the Cape Breton consent/privacy breach that was reported here yesterday. The Canadian Press reports: … Malcom said the breach was discovered as the district was dealing with a significant outbreak of C. difficile, and it also took time to verify the addresses of the patients involved. He said the intention was to send…