Elizabeth Snell reports an update to a 2010 breach previously covered on this site: The Pennsylvania Superior Court recently dismissed claims in a healthcare data breach class action lawsuit, explaining that the trial court needs to review the plaintiff’s claim under the Uniform Trade Practices and Consumer Protection Law (UTPCPL). In the case Baum v. Keystone Mercy Health…
Category: Lost or Missing
Edwin Shaw employee loses unencrypted flash drive with 975 patients’ info
An anonymous site visitor kindly pointed me to this item that was in the Akron Beacon Journal last week: If you went to Akron General Edwin Shaw Rehabilitation hospital in 2010 or 2011, expect to receive a letter from hospital officials saying that some of your information may have been compromised. Officials said the data…
Michigan dentist notifies patients of missing backup drive
On March 4, W. Christopher Bryant DDS P.C. alerted his patients to a potential data security breach that impacted 2,200 patients. On March 15, he posted this letter on his web site: 8285 S. Saginaw Suite 102 Grand Blanc, Michigan 48439 Dear Patients and Friends March 15, 2016 You are receiving this letter because of a recent…
IE: Patient documents must have ‘blown out of’ doctor’s hand
The Dundalk Democrat reports: Councillor Tomás Sharkey has hit out at the latest breach of patient privacy in Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital. “Last week patients and their families received calls from management of Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital. The call was to apologise for the fact that personal files, found in a public place…
Missing mental health assessments result in HIPAA notifications by VA to 373 veterans
I was skimming the Veterans Administration report to Congress on data breaches and incidents for February and thinking, “Hey, this looks pretty good this month,” and then…. I saw an incident involving the VA Midwest Health Care Network in St. Cloud, Minnesota. On February 9, a staff member conducted group meetings to complete a paper packet with…
Karmanos Cancer Center discloses lost flash drive contained patient info
It’s 2016. Why are people still mailing unencrypted flash drives with protected health information? This should be an automatic monetary penalty from OCR. It’s not, but it should be by now. Fox47 in Detroit reports that the Barbara Ann Karmanos Cancer Center is notifying 2,808 patients and family members after they lost an unencrypted flash drive…