Personal Health Information Privacy
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Updated: 4 hours 20 min ago
Medical errors, apologies and apology laws
Noni MacDonald, MD MSc and Amir Attaran, LLB DPhi have an editorial in the current issue of the Canadian Medical Association Journal that addresses the need for apologies when a medical error occurs.
The article describes the history of such laws in the U.S. in the 1990’s:
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Full disclosure to the patient is the ethically and professionally [...]
Categories: International Health IT Blogs and News Sites
FL: Video surveillance in a hospital room here was not under a reasonable expectation of privacy
John Wesley Hall, Jr. tells us of a recent court decision that I actually agree with:
Defendant was charged with child abuse murder in Florida. After the death of her child in Florida, she moved to West Virginia. Defendant was suspected there of child abuse by Munchausen syndrome by proxy, and video surveillance was set up [...]
Categories: International Health IT Blogs and News Sites
How Technology May Soon “Read” Your Mind
How often have you wondered what your spouse is really thinking? Or your boss? Or the guy sitting across from you on the bus? We all take as a given that we’ll never really know for sure. The content of our thoughts is our own - private, secret, and unknowable by anyone else. Until now, [...]
Categories: International Health IT Blogs and News Sites
Stunning breach of confidentiality in Travolta tragedy
As Americans, we are indoctrinated with the notion of patient confidentiality. But what happened in the recent Jett Travolta tragedy should remind us that the protections we may have here may not apply if health care is provided out of the country.
By now, most of the world knows that actor John Travolta’s son died last [...]
Categories: International Health IT Blogs and News Sites
ANNOUNCE: Breach news moving to DataBreaches.net
Happy New Year!
Starting today, all healthcare-related breach news stories will be posted to our new companion web site, DataBreaches.net. For your convenience, you can subscribe to the news feed from that site.
Categories: International Health IT Blogs and News Sites
Company faces privacy probe into health records found on Ottawa street
Ontario’s privacy commissioner is launching an investigation into how patients’ sensitive medical records ended up being blown around a downtown Ottawa street Wednesday.
Ann Cavoukian said she alerted CML Healthcare immediately after hearing that an Ottawa man had found the papers on O’Connor Street, outside a medical centre housing a CML medical imaging clinic.
Read more on [...]
Categories: International Health IT Blogs and News Sites
NM: Legislature to take another look at digital medical records
Trip Jennings reports about legislation dealing with EMRs:
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But with changes in how medicine is practiced, there are also unresolved questions, in particular as they relate to privacy, says Bob Mayer, the chief information officer at the New Mexico Department of Health.
And Mayer and others hope that state lawmakers will pass a law during the upcoming [...]
Categories: International Health IT Blogs and News Sites
FL: Private Medical Records ‘Found In Garbage’
Erich Spivey reports:
What happens inside these walls, at Dr. Anjali Pathak’s office, is supposed to remain private.
But pages upon pages of un-shredded medical documents from Dr. Pathak’s Southside counseling office arrived here at First Coast News. An unsigned note reads, “Patient’s psychiatric records found in garbage.”
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All total, we found personal information for 37 patients.
Read more [...]
Categories: International Health IT Blogs and News Sites
Rapper DMX pleads guilty to drug, theft charges
The Associated Press reports:
Rapper DMX has reached a plea deal on multiple drug possession, theft and animal cruelty charges.
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Authorities alleged that DMX gave a false name and Social Security number when being treated at a Scottsdale hospital in April. He was indicted on felony charges of theft and taking someone’s identity.
Categories: International Health IT Blogs and News Sites
Why shared medical database is wrong prescription
Jacob. M. Appel, a healthcare attorney, has an OpEd in the Orlando Sentinel about EMRs:
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The key element in any electronic medical system is what bioinformaticians call interoperability. This refers to the capability of repositories of EMRs (e.g. hospitals, doctors offices, nursing homes) to access and exchange data through the same system.
Currently, the largest such system [...]
Categories: International Health IT Blogs and News Sites
How to prevent and cure medical ID theft
Pat Curry has a nice little overview article on medical identity theft on CreditCards.com. If you’re new to the topic, you might want to check it out.
Categories: International Health IT Blogs and News Sites
Health center workers used deceased patient info to apply for loans
Valryn Warren reports:
Two Samaritan North Health Center employees indicted on identity theft and money laundering charges used information from deceased patients to apply for online loans, police said Friday, Dec. 26.
Linda McDermott-Dorsey and Lisa Kidd, both of Trotwood, were indicted Dec. 23. McDermott-Dorsey is charged with 11 counts of money laundering and one count of [...]
Categories: International Health IT Blogs and News Sites
NH: Lakes Region General Hospital package containing patient medical information still missing
Bea Lewis reports:
Despite crossed fingers, a package containing personnel medical information on 1,500 patients at Lakes Region General Hospital remains missing.
Henry Lipman, executive vice president and chief financial officer at LRGHeath Care, said UPS shipped the parcel from a Woburn, Mass. central processing agent to the hospital but the package never arrived.
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Information contained in the [...]
Categories: International Health IT Blogs and News Sites
Hk: Hospital contravenes privacy rules: report
The Privacy Commissioner for Personal Data’s investigation has found the United Christian Hospital has contravened the Personal Data (Privacy) Ordinance in the loss of a USB flash drive containing patients’ personal data.
Releasing the report today, Commissioner Roderick Woo said before using a USB device, hospital staff should first consider whether there is a real need [...]
Categories: International Health IT Blogs and News Sites
Ex-St. John’s employee asks for reduced bond
Dirk Vanderhart reports:
Less than 24 hours after being charged with a host of felonies, a former St. John’s Health System employee appeared before a Greene County Judge this morning to ask for a bond reduction.
Scott A. Johnson, a former fitness trainer at St. John’s Health Tracks facility, was charged Monday with 17 counts of second-degree [...]
Categories: International Health IT Blogs and News Sites
SoCal Hospital Employee Accused of ID Theft, Insurance Fraud
More than 1,000 patients of Cedars-Siani Medical Center may have had personal information taken by a former employee, who allegedly used their identities to defraud insurance companies.
A search of the home of James Allen Wilson, 44, turned up the patients’ information, the hospital’s chief financial officer said in a letter to the affected persons [...]
Categories: International Health IT Blogs and News Sites
UK: Missing secret data scandal
A whole bunch of breaches, some of which we never knew about at the time, some involving patient records, some involving employee records. Some of the bigger non-patient ones were reported on PogoWasRight.org at the time and can be found by searching that site.
HIGHLY sensitive child protection papers are among scores of documents and computer [...]
Categories: International Health IT Blogs and News Sites
Health IT certification group to embrace PHR privacy labeling
John Moore reports:
The Certification Commission for Healthcare Information Technology intends to incorporate elements of the federal government’s newly announced privacy and security framework as the organization continues work on personal health record certification.
The Health and Human Services Department earlier this week issued the framework along with a privacy and security toolkit. The latter includes a [...]
Categories: International Health IT Blogs and News Sites
UK: Doctors fight plans to hand medical records to researchers and private companies
Laura Donnelly reports:
The association said the Government was “dancing with the devil” with its proposals to give researchers, which could include commercial organisations, access to a giant computer database of patient records.
The Government’s own health information watchdog has also written to ministers to express his concern about the plans, which could see patients’ names and [...]
Categories: International Health IT Blogs and News Sites
MN: Identity theft unravels with web of lies
Shawn Hogendorf reports:
Police have unraveled a web of lies worthy of being written into a complicated movie plot after a 42-year-old woman from Savage allegedly stole the identities of at least eight people across the country and then used the information to obtain credit cards, make numerous purchases and acquire utility services.
Nicole Frances Fry was [...]
Categories: International Health IT Blogs and News Sites
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