Adam Huras of The Telegram reports on two small recent breaches in New Brunswick and Ontario involving patient data. In one case, after searching for months to locate missing files of three patients, patients were sent letters notifying them of the loss. That’s when the health authority discovered that one of the three patients had…
Category: Health Data
UK: Confidential files found on road
The BBC reports that the personal records of six people from Dove Lane Residential Home in Harrold and belonging to NHS services in the county were found in a roadway. The residential home is run by Houghton Regis-based Aldwyck Housing Group. The NHS agency responsible, Bedfordshire Continence Services, is expected to comment later.
CA: Marian Medical Center patients’ personal information may be compromised
Amber Lee of KSBY reports that 3,200 ER and Urgent Care Center patients of Marian Medical Center in Santa Maria have been notified that a Blackberry containing patient information was stolen from the hospital. “On that Blackberry was an email, you know, one of our emails, and on one of the emails was buried a…
UK: Laptop with patient details taken
The BBC reports that NHS Grampian has confirmed that a laptop containing names and addresses, dates of birth, and coded clinical information of 1,392 patients has been stolen from Aberdeen Royal Infirmary. The laptop was stolen from a locked office cupboard sometime between the evening of April 15 and the next morning. According to a…
HHS offers health IT privacy guidelines
Brian Robinson reports in Government Health IT: The Health and Human Services Department has begun overhauling the privacy and security rules that govern personal health information, which is considered vital to attempts by Congress and the Obama administration to broaden the adoption of electronic health records. HHS published guidance on April 17 that outlines the…
Proposed breach notification rule would affect more health vendors
Bob Brewin reports: Rules proposed by the Federal Trade Commission on April 16 on disclosure of breaches of personal health information would greatly expand the number of companies that would be subject to notifying individuals if their personal health data was exposed because records were lost or stolen, or because a hacker broke into a…