More than 100,000 patients who take drugs to prevent blood clots are at risk of identity theft. An employee of Alere Home Monitoring, Inc. had the patient data on a laptop that was stolen. The computer file contained the names, Social Security numbers, addresses and diagnoses of patients who take anticoagulant drugs such as warfarin…
Category: Health Data
Ca: Veterans minister halts privacy breach investigation by vets ombudsman
I’ve previously covered a privacy breach involving an activist veterans’ medical records. I was somewhat disturbed to read that the investigation into the breach has been shut down. Murray Brewster reports: An investigation by Canada’s veterans ombudsman into a controversial breach of privacy was quietly shut down last year on the instructions of Veterans Affairs…
CO: Memorial Patient Information Missing
Memorial Hospital (University of Colorado Health) issued the following statement on November 6: Memorial Hospital has discovered that laboratory reports containing a certain amount of health information for 6,400 patients are missing. The laboratory reports are used for processing billing and charges for laboratory services, not for clinical care. There is no evidence the missing…
RI: Hospital says unencrypted backup tapes with patient info are missing
Tim O’Coin reports: Women & Infants Hospital says tapes of ultrasound images and patients’ personal information are missing. According to a post on its website, the hospital discovered back in September that backup ultrasound tapes at Ambulatory Sites in Providence and New Bedford had disappeared. The hospital said the tapes also contained patients’ names, dates…
UK: Solent NHS Trust patient data left at market stall
Katie Grant reports: Patients’ confidential information has been left at a market stall and on top of a parking meter in a series of data breaches by Solent NHS Trust. A Freedom of Information (FOI) request by the BBC revealed the trust had breached data protection 93 times in the past two years. Michael Parr,…
Illinois nursing home residents' data stolen
Associated Press reports: The personal information of 508 Illinois nursing home residents was inside a stolen briefcase, prompting the state agency overseeing Medicaid to notify the people affected by the breach. The Illinois Department of Healthcare and Family Services announced the incident Friday. A statement from the department says the briefcase was stolen Aug. 31…