Joanne Francis reports: After a library book was returned to Nipawin Public Library, with records containing personal health information tucked into it’s pages, a library employee contacted Kelsey Trail Health Authority (KTHA). An employee from Nipawin Hospital retrieved the records of approximately 19 patients. Investigating it further, KTHA determined that a surgical assistant who was…
Category: Health Data
Franciscan Physician Network of Illinois and Specialty Physicians of Illinois notify patients of payment records lost or stolen from storage facility
Their press release: December 12 – Franciscan Physician Network of Illinois (FPN Illinois) and Specialty Physicians of Illinois, LLC (formerly known as Wellgroup Health Partners, LLC, “SPI”) are notifying patients of a privacy breach. On November 21, 2017, it was confirmed that a limited number of boxes that contained 22,000 patient payment records could not be located…
Former Manitoba Health employee snooped on records of family, senior public officials: ombudsman
CBC News reports: The province’s ombudsman says Manitoba Health didn’t do enough to mitigate the risks of a privacy breach. That was Charlene Paquin’s finding in a report detailing the investigation of an employee who accessed the medical records of his estranged daughter, colleagues and some senior public officials. The ombudsman’s report, released Tuesday, included 11 recommendations, including hiring…
TX: MMH announces ‘data security incident’ involving patient information
MRT reports that once again, compromising employee email provides access for attackers: Midland Memorial Hospital announced Tuesday there was a data security incident involving a limited number of patients’ personal information. […] The hospital became aware on Oct. 13 that an unauthorized third party may have obtained access to an employee’s e-mail account on or…
New Report: The Geography of Medical Identity Theft
Pam Dixon and John Emerson have authored a new report from the World Privacy Forum: The Geography of Medical Identity Theft. From the report: Summary of Findings and Recommendations This report finds that medical identity theft is growing overall in the United States, however, there’s a catch. The consumer complaint data suggests that the crime…
National Capital Poison Center discloses ransomware incident
One of the reasons DataBreaches.net has never confined its reporting and analyses to HIPAA-covered entities is that there are so many other types of entities that collect and store health or medical information. Today’s example comes from the National Capital Poison Center, who found themselves in the unenviable position of reporting a ransomware attack that…