This falls under workplace privacy as well as health privacy: The Netherlands’ biggest private health and safety firm (arbodienst) has been passing confidential medical information to employers, television current affairs show Zembla will report on Friday evening. Many Dutch firms rely on private companies to monitor health and safety in the workplace, follow up on…
Category: Health Data
CardioNet reports two breaches involving laptop theft (?) and other breaches newly revealed on HHS's breach tool
Sometimes it takes a while for me to track down details on a breach after seeing it mentioned on HHS’s breach tool. And sometimes, it’s just too late. A case in point is an entry for Flex Physical Therapy in Washington, where apparently 3,100 patients were affected by a computer theft on December 30, 2011. But…
Breach Leaves Thousands Of Kaiser Permanente Employees Checking Their Credit Report (update)
KXL FM reports that Kaiser Permanente has sent notifications to some current and former employees after their data were found on an external hard drive purchased in a second-hand store in September 2011: Maryann Schwab with Kaiser Permanente says names, phone numbers, social security numbers and other personal information was found on a non-Kaiser external…
Patient Claims Doctor Used Her in a Book
Robert Kahn reports: A woman claims in court that a doctor who treated her for drug addiction invaded her privacy by using “her most private, embarrassing, and traumatizing memories in order to surreptitiously obtain material for the book … ‘The Addict: One Patient, One Doctor, One Year.’” Gabrielle Lisnoff sued Dr. Michael Stein in Federal…
Blood and urine samples found near busy downtown St. John’s street
Improper disposal of medical waste can pose health risks. It can also breach privacy, as the Canadian Press reports: Eastern Health is investigating how the waste — which consisted of three urine samples and eight vials of blood with patient names on them — ended up near a provincial government building along Prince Philip Drive…
A Georgetown University Hospital breach makes me wonder about HHS's breach tool
The recent update to the HHS breach tool made me aware of a breach involving Georgetown University Hospital that affected over 1,500 patients. The following statement was issued by Georgetown University Hospital, who kindly provided this site with a copy of the notification: A USB thumb drive storing patient information was recently determined to be…