Ethel Smith reports: Government offices have had problems in the past with storing confidential data. Services such as the NHS have tightened their procedures considerably. Despite that, the UK Hospital Trust, which operates where I live, has recently had a member of staff lose confidential data. It seems that a junior doctor did not follow…
Category: Health Data
For Data Privacy Day on Jan. 28: Access Offers Free Information Destruction Services
I normally don’t post press releases, but because this one offers free services in support of Data Privacy Day and because I was I just talking about the need to securely destroy paper records, it gets the plug: Access Information Management, provider of records management, storage and destruction services for hardcopy and electronic records will host free…
FL: Healthcare Insurance Applications Found in Trash
Last month, I posted a breach story by Robert Siciliano about a then-unnamed insurance agency that had reportedly discarded Blue Cross Blue Shield insurance applications in a dumpster. The files were found by investigator William “Cobra” Staubs, who was engaged in “research.” Simon Barrett followed up on the incident and posted some pictures that suggest that…
NS: Privacy watchdog mulls probe of WCB
Davena Jeffrey reports: Nova Scotia’s defender of personal privacy will decide Monday whether she will launch an investigation into the Workers’ Compensation Board of Nova Scotia’s handling of its clients’ information. In an interview Friday, Dulcie McCallum, Nova Scotia’s freedom of information and protection of privacy review officer, said her office has been discussing what…
HHS web site reveals three new breaches
Today’s update to the HHS breach tool web site records some breaches we already knew about but also some other breaches we did not know about through the usual media sources: California Therapy Solutions in California reported that 1,226 patients had protected health information on a stolen device. The theft occurred on November 15. As…
UK: Doc Files Dumped in a Bin
Paul Thornton reports: Hospital bosses have launched an investigation after documents revealing patients’ personal records were found dumped in a wheelie bin. The details – on two sheets of paper – were discovered with a dictaphone tape, also thought to contain confidential medical data. Data included the patients’ addresses and phone numbers, as well as…