Alison Dayani reports: CONFIDENTIAL patient notes have been posted out to random strangers in a blunder by Birmingham mental health workers. An inquiry is under way into how the error happened – disclosing private details including medical history, National Health Service numbers, dates of birth and other information that could lead to identity fraud. Blunders…
Category: Health Data
WA: Bags Of Personal Information Found Outside Doctors' Offices
David Quinlan reports: […] In the course of our four month investigation, we uncovered bags full of private patient information recklessly discarded in the trash right outside pharmacies and doctor’s offices. We even found syringes, urine samples, social security numbers and someone’s STD test results. Read more on KIRO 7
TX: Wanted man found with stolen personal information
Lacie Morrison reports: While serving warrants on a Mineral Wells resident, law enforcement officers recently recovered identifying information on more than 200 people apparently stolen from a medical records storage facility. […] The paperwork that was discovered with him, however, added an additional charge to the list. According to Mercer, the papers contained information on…
Hospital fires up to 6 for accessing Pressly's files
Jacob Quinn Sanders reports: St. Vincent Health System fired as many as six employees last month for improperly accessing the records of Little Rock morning television anchor Anne Pressly while she was a patient at the company’s main hospital, the chief executive confirmed Wednesday morning. […] Banko declined to name the jobs the employees held….
A third of healthcare professionals leave data security to chance
A transatlantic survey of more than a thousand healthcare professionals has shown that over a third are unwittingly putting personal information at risk by storing patient records, medical images, contact details, corporate data and other sensitive information on mobile devices such as laptops, BlackBerrys and USB sticks – and not adequately securing them. The “mobile…
Should presidential candidates' DNA be public?
Elizabeth Cooney reports: Can you picture a future when some political operative swipes a presidential candidate’s strand of hair, decodes its genetic data, and predicts mental or physical danger based on the analysis? Bioethicist George J. Annas and neurologist Dr. Robert C. Green of Boston University School of Public Health can. Two months before Barack…