Lynley Bilby reports: Sensitive health documents of four dead patients have been spilled on to a busy Auckland motorway. The privacy blunder happened when a staff member reviewing the files of the former patients from North Shore and Waitemata Hospitals left them on top of their car and drove home after work. The documents were…
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Ca: Anti-abortion activist snooped into patient records
Olivia Carville reports some additional details involving a breach at Peterborough Regional Health Centre that has been noted on PHIprivacy.net since 2012, including a lawsuit against the centre: An anti-abortion activist who worked at an Ontario hospital was sacked after a massive privacy breach in which abortion files, among other patient records, were inappropriately accessed. Dawn DeCiccio, a high-profile anti-abortion campaigner,…
Privacy concerns raised on Mass. medical marijuana e-mails
It’s deja vu all over again. First it was postal mail from Health Canada. Now it’s e-mail from Massachusetts. Kay Lazar reports: The subject line left little doubt about the contents of the e-mail sent by the Massachusetts health department. “Confirmation of Patient Certification in the Medical Use of Marijuana Online System,” it stated. More…
NZ: Abortion data leaked by mistake (Updated with Lakes DHB statement)
A horrific breach in response to a FOIA/media request. Collette Devlin reports: A privacy breach blunder has resulted in personal details of more than 600 females, some as young as 13, who had abortions in the central North Island being given to a Stuff reporter. The data was mistakenly released by a junior staff member…
St. Louis County Dept. of Health investigates HIPAA breach involving inmates
Paul Hampel reports: St. Louis County officials are investigating a violation of federal health privacy law involving a health department employee who allegedly mishandled email information of inmates at the county jail. The county said the employee emailed a document to the employee’s personal account containing names and social security numbers of some inmates from…
NL: Patient records stolen from UMC Groningen
Taneli Savela reports: Medical records from the University Medical Center Groningen (UMCG) that were supposed to be destroyed, ended up in the spotlight on regional broadcaster RTV Noord. The program shows the workers of the employment company Synergon handling old x-rays carelessly. Synergon has reported the theft to the police. UMCG uses a company named Virol to…