Martha Neil reports: Under fire for allegedly mishandling sensitive patient records from an abortion doctor in addition to other claimed violations of attorney ethics rules, a former attorney general of Kansas and district attorney has contended the disciplinary case against him is politically motivated. But the No. 2 man in the AG’s office under Phill…
Category: Health Data
Henry Ford Health System employee loses flash drive containing patient information
Robin Erb reports: For the second time in less than a year, a security lapse within the Henry Ford Health System has compromised patient information. In the latest incident, an employee lost a flash drive with information on 2,777 patients on Jan. 31, triggering an investigation, according to the hospital. The probe began Feb. 8…
Mass. General to pay $1M to settle privacy claims
Massachusetts General Hospital and its physicians organization have agreed to pay the federal government $1,000,000 to settle claims related to a worker leaving personal health documents on the subway. The hospital also agreed to develop a comprehensive new privacy policy to prevent patient information from being compromised in the future, and to provide training to…
Inappropriate access to patient records in the VA system: 2010 statistics
Earlier this month, I covered a VA privacy breach incident that had been reported in the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review. At the time, I noted that it was not clear to me whether the incident had been included in the VA’s monthly report to Congress as I hadn’t seen anything like that case mentioned. I wrote to…
UK: Met called after hackers send obscene emails from university database
Josh Halliday reports: The Metropolitan police has been called in after computer hackers gained access to a London university medical database, sending a string of expletive-laden emails to hundreds of its users. Unidentified hackers sent emails last week pretending that members of the university’s executive board were involved in a “recent child pornography sting” and…
Emory Healthcare posts statement about breach on its web site
A statement was posted today on Emory’s web site about a breach first reported yesterday: Emory Healthcare recently received notification from external law enforcement agents that 77 of our orthopaedics patients may have been victims of identity theft in May 2008 or January 2009. Please be assured that this was not a breach into the…