Alison Diana reports: When a doctor treating a North Carolina nursing home patient asked a nurse to text the resident’s lab results, only the two authorized medical professionals saw the message — but the residential facility ended up paying a high price for using this inherently insecure messaging medium. The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid…
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FL: Search warrant for medical records were sealed; they need to be opened for investigation but still protect the rights of patients
John Wesley Hall points to a case in Florida that may be of interest to this blog’s readers: Search warrants were used to obtain patient medical records of alleged illegal pain management clinics that implicated the privacy rights of the patients, and they were sealed, amounting to an order of suppression. The circuit court is…
Essentia Health in Fargo acknowledges 'breach of patient information'
Patrick Springer reports: FARGO – About 430 Essentia Health patients recently received notice of a “breach of patient information” resulting from a marketing firm’s involvement in promoting an education seminar for patients. A letter touting a “free educational event” was sent June 6 to patients suffering from lower back symptoms, inviting them to learn about…
UK: Dental patients' records stolen in burglary
Dan Cain reports: Patients of a dental surgery in Broadwater were informed confidential records had been stolen three months after the theft took place. Broadwater Gentle Dental in Broadwater Road, was burgled between 9.10pm on March 4 and 7.20am on March 5. Cain reports that the practice had only recently been taken over by Dr…
Haley Chiropractic of Tacoma notifies 6,000 patients after office burglary
Haley Chiropractic of Tacoma experienced an office burglary in May that resulted in the theft of three computers containing 6,000 patients’ records. The records included names, addresses, dates of birth, Social Security numbers, diagnosis, and health insurance information. One of the computers held some range and motion test data without other personal information. No financial or…
When departing employees take your PHI with them….
One of the breaches recently added to HHS’s public breach tool involved PRN Medical Services, LLC, d/b/a Symbius Medical, LLC in Arizona. The incident, which reportedly occurred January 18 and affected 2,200 patients was coded as “Theft, Unauthorized Access/Disclosure, Other” with the location of the data being coded as “Network Server, E-mail.” As has often been the case…