Neil Macfarlane reports in The Northern Echo: PATIENTS’ representatives have spoken of their outrage after scores of confidential files were lost by North-East NHS trusts. The papers include private data such as medical history notes, prescription charts and laboratory results. Among the missing data is a bundle of 19 files that a consultant left in…
Category: Health Data
UK: Health board admits losing patients’ data
Steward Paterson of The Herald reports: New controls on computerised data storage have been introduced at a Scottish health authority after equipment containing patients’ sensitive details were lost. Two computer memory sticks were reported as lost or stolen earlier this year by staff at NHS Dumfries and Galloway. New guidelines are now being implemented concerning…
Security Breach: More Laws Needed. Let's Add Health Care
Over on InformationWeek, George Hulme is singing our tune: […] But let’s just stick to health care. More than 1.5 million patient records at hospitals have been exposed by data breaches during 2006 and 2007, according to the 2008 HIMSS Analytics Report: Security of Patient Data, commissioned by Kroll Fraud Solutions. That begs the question:…
UK: NHS hit by new data losses
Kate Foster of Scotland on Sunday reports: THE loss of confidential personal data has become so widespread that patients’ groups last night launched a campaign to tighten up security in the NHS. The move comes as Scotland on Sunday reveals hundreds of cases of breaches concerning patients’ notes. Two lost USB computer memory sticks containing…
ID theft scheme brings sentence for Oklahoma City woman (follow-up)
Jay F. Marks reports: An Oklahoma City woman was sentenced Friday to more than a year in prison for violating a federal health privacy law in an identity theft scheme. Leslie A. Howell pleaded guilty in May to violating the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996, a federal law meant to protect patients’…
TX: Dentist charged with taping people in restroom
AP reports: A dentist accused of videotaping people using the bathroom at his clinic faces charges of improper photography, authorities said. Byron Weinle was charged Thursday on four counts, accused of secretly videotaping patients and employees. Two women who work at the clinic tipped authorities after finding videotapes inside Weinle’s office, officials said. Read more…