Interesting press release from the AIDS Healthcare Foundation: In response to a formal written complaint alleging sweeping violations of federal patient confidentiality laws filed by AIDS Healthcare Foundation (AHF), the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has decided to open an investigation of the Adult Industry Medical (AIM) HealthCare Foundation, a Los Angeles…
Category: Health Data
UK: Poor data security in the NHS
From the press release: The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) remains highly concerned that data breaches involving people’s personal information are continuing to occur in NHS organisations. Today NHS Stoke-on-Trent and Basingstoke and North Hampshire NHS Foundation Trust are the latest NHS bodies found to have breached the Data Protection Act (DPA). Both NHS organisations’ chief…
Five California Hospitals Fined Over Unauthorized Access to Patient Records
Thanks to a reader who sent me the link, here is a more complete listing of the $675,000 in fines recently imposed by the California Department of Public Health (CDPH) on hospitals over privacy breaches involving unauthorized access to patient files by employees: 1. Community Hospital of San Bernardino, San Bernardino, San Bernardino County: The hospital…
Newly revealed breaches on OCR's site (updated)
Some more breaches that we did not know about have been revealed on OCR’s web site: Occupational Health Partners State: Kansas Approx. # of Individuals Affected: 1,105 Date of Breach: 5/12/10 Type of Breach: Theft Location of Breached Information: Laptop UnitedHealth Group State: Minnesota Approx. # of Individuals Affected: 16,291 Date of Breach: 1/26/10 Type…
NY: Widow Says Cops Leaked Suicide Note
Barbara Leonard reports: A widow claims that state police released her husband’s suicide note the media, along with private letters he left for the family. The widow and her children sued New York State Police Officer Steven Nutting and several Officer Does on constitutional claims in Federal Court. On the night in May 2008 when…
Hospital, uni in blame game over research breach
Julie Robotham reports: Sydney Children’s Hospital and the University of NSW have blamed each other for a spectacular governance failure which saw the medical records of disabled children used in student research without their parents’ consent or approval from either institution. The university said it stopped the research in 2007 when it first came to…