I’ve occasionally noted the problems that may arise following a natural disaster. Here’s a case where a health service did its best to ensure patient care following a massive outage due to fire. Although they had a plan in place, the commissioner’s investigation found that the plan was not sufficiently comprehensive, was not understood by…
Category: Health Data
UK: ICO follow-up on Burnett Practice undertaking
In April, I noted that the Burnett Practice had signed an undertaking with the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) after an email account they used to notify patients of upcoming appointments was hacked. Today, the ICO posted a summary of their follow-up to ensure that the practice complied with the undertaking. Given that the follow-up actions by…
Update on AHMC laptop theft: arrest warrant issued
Associated Press reports that an arrest warrant has been for a transient who police say stole two laptop computers from AHMC that contained SSN and personal information of 729,000 patients. Update: Christopher Lee Brown has been arrested.
AvMed To Pay $3M To Settle Data Theft Suit With Customers
Law360.com reports that AvMed will pay $3 million to settle a class action lawsuit filed after the 2009 theft of laptops with information on 1.2 million people. Previous coverage of the AvMed breach on this blog linked from here. As I commented recently, this breach appears to be a still-open investigation on HHS’s breach tool,…
NZ: Surrogate mother disgusted by hospital staff snooping in her records and not getting fired
A few days ago, I noted a privacy breach that left the victim considering moving out of the area. Here’s yet another insider privacy breach involving a hospital where the affected patient is considering moving. Michelle Duff reports: Hutt Hospital receptionists nosed through the medical notes of a surrogate mother 20 times but were allowed…
MO: Employee Abuses Access to Boone Hospital Patient Information
Nick Thompson reports: KOMU 8 News obtained a letter from a Boone Hospital patient Monday in which the privacy director admitted an employee affiliated with the hospital abused their access to a network containing patient information. Privacy director Kathleen Pitzer wrote several patients last week, saying she became aware of an information breach on Sept….