Wilma McCorkindale reports: A former Dunedin enrolled nurse who illegally accessed details of a patient’s termination of pregnancy and then texted another person about it has been suspended from practising. Rayleen Jeanette Park has appeared before the Health Practitioners Disciplinary Tribunal on charges under the Health Practitioners Competence Assurance Act 2003. In a tribunal decision…
OK, NSA, ‘fess up: did you hack Belgacom?
Has the NSA been hacking into Belgian telco Belgacom since 2011 – or has some other government? Who knows? Read deStandaard, Threatpost, and the Washington Post.
A privacy/confidentiality breach risks medical mistakes
Here’s a situation in which there’s clearly been a privacy breach, but the privacy issues may actually be the least of the patients’ problems. Heather Graf reports that a former patient at the Carol Milgard Breast Center has filed a complaint after discovering three other patients’ records were mixed in with her own, raising questions of…
Revised OECD Privacy Guidelines Focus On Accountability, Notification of Breaches
Rick Mitchell reports: The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development has released updated privacy guidelines with an increased focus on implementation and enforcement and a new risk-management approach to accountability for companies and public organizations, practitioners told Bloomberg BNA Sept. 11. Posted on the OECD’s website Sept. 9, the updated guidelines replace the 33-year-old original…
Will providers deny patient requests to email medical records?
Tom Sullivan writes: As a self-described “rabble rouser” Brian Ahier plans to ask his doctor to send a medical record to a free e-mail account, if only to see what happens, after the omnibus HIPAA Final Rule on Privacy and Security kicks in. “It’s obviously not the biggest thing in the omnibus rule but it’s…
Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi notifies employees after AON Hewitt e-mail gaffe discloses their information
The Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi recently notified some employees that their names and Social Security numbers had been erroneously emailed by their vendor AON Hewitt to another client of AON Hewitt. The email error occurred on August 2 and employees were notified on September 3. Although the risk analysis indicated a very low risk of misuse,…