Today, HIMSS released a new report, 2009 HIMSS Analytics Report: Evaluating HITECH’s Impact on Healthcare Privacy and Security. Commissioned by ID Experts, HIMSS surveyed senior information technology (IT) executives, Chief Security Officers, Chief Medical Information Officers (CMIOs), Chief Information Security Officers and Chief Privacy Officers at hospitals throughout the United States.They also surveyed business associates…
Category: Health Data
Update: Stolen BCBS hard drives had data on 2 million insured
This is a follow-up to an incident first reported here. Dennis Ferrier reports: One of Tennessee’s largest holders of personal information confirms that an October theft from a Chattanooga office affects about 2 million of its clients. Blue Cross Blue Shield said 68 computer hard drives that contained Social Security numbers and other sensitive information…
Gu: GMH Issues Notice of Breach of Unsecured Health Information
Pursuant to the federal Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act, Guam Memorial Hospital Authority has issued a notice of breach of unsecured health information after a laptop computer used by the GMHA Employee Health Office was stolen from the Guam Memorial Hospital. A file on the computer contained limited health information on…
Police probe breach of NHS smartcard security as e-records launched in London
Tony Collins reports: An NHS trust at the forefront of work on the £12.7bn NHS IT scheme has called in police after a breach of smartcard security compromised the confidentiality of hundreds of electronic records. Patients in Hull have expressed their dismay that an unauthorised NHS employee has accessed their confidential records; and the local…
IN: Boxes of medical files found abandoned
Tom Moor reports: An agent with the Indiana attorney general’s office removed 21 boxes of medical records from a downtown office building Friday that contain the personal information of hundreds of local people. The boxes, consisting of thousands of sheets of paper, contain patients’ Social Security numbers, addresses, phone numbers, diagnoses and prescriptions. […] Although…
UK: Primary Care Trusts breach the Data Protection Act
Great Yarmouth and Waveney Primary Care Trust and Gloucestershire Primary Care Trust have taken remedial action after the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) found them in breach of the Data Protection Act. Great Yarmouth and Waveney Primary Care Trust (PCT) informed the ICO of the theft of two desktop computers containing sensitive personal data relating to…