More than 40 serious incidents and cases of malpractice were reported at West Midlands Ambulance Service in three years, including people falling off stretchers in ambulances and one crew failing to notice its patient had died. According to details released under the Freedom of Information Act, there have been 45 serious untoward incidents reported at…
Category: Health Data
Data Breaches Cost Hospitals $6B Yearly
Dom Nicastro writes: Hospitals spend $6 billion annually because of data breaches, and Federal regulations enacted under the HITECH Act have not improved the safety of patient records research from The Ponemon Institute shows. Among the data security and privacy research firm’s findings: Hospitals are not protecting patient data Hospitals admit to being vulnerable to…
BCBS of Tennessee provides update on breach involving stolen hard drives
Approximately one year after the theft of 57 hard drives containing member data from a leased facility in Chattanooga, BlueCross Blue Shield of Tennessee provided an update on the breach to the New Hampshire Attorney General’s Office. BCBS had assigned the affected individuals to one of three “tiers.” Tier 1 included those whose Social Security…
Ca: Victim of privacy breach wants hospital to explain
Hugh Adami reports: One would think The Ottawa Hospital would readily explain to Allyson Merrison how an X-ray technician — her husband’s ex-wife — was punished for electronically breaching her medical records six times over 10 months. But, says the hospital, privacy laws for its employees prevent it from revealing how it dealt with Teri…
Ca: Health records privacy breach affects more than 100 in Sarnia, Ont., area
The Canadian Press reports: The confidential health information of more than 100 southwestern Ontario residents has been breached. Bluewater Health and the North Lambton Community Health Centre have sent a letter of notification and apology to affected patients advising that personal information was inappropriately accessed. Bluewater Health privacy officer Karen Waymouth says a North Lambton…
Cook County appointment reminder system drops the ball on HIPAA
Neil Versel describes a situation that’s concerned me for a long time — automatic calls that reveal PHI if the person who answers the call says that they’re the person being dialed (even when they’re not!): Friday, “Cook County” popped up on the caller ID when I was on another call. Ditto for when I…