From today’s Inyo Register in Bishop, California:
Local law enforcement has opened an investigation into the theft of medical records from Northern Inyo Hospital in a case that has shaken community members and NIH itself.
This past summer, hospital officials noticed that an employee in the records department had illegally obtained and was in possession of a patient’s medical file. Hospital Administrator John Halfen said Thursday that the employee was fired within hours of the discovery, but the ramifications of the theft are far-reaching.
Kudos to the hospital for promptly firing the employee upon discovery of the breach.
The patient’s response may seem a bit extreme. According to the paper, the patient testified that the breach has shaken her confidence in the healthcare system “and she may have to move out of the community.”
I’ve occasionally read surveys where patients have indicated that they might move as a result of a breach, and that really seems extreme. Unless you have a really stigmatizing medical or psychiatric condition and you’re worried about social or employment consequences, would you move because of a breach – particularly when you see that a hospital detected the breach on its own and responded to it forcefully and immediately?
Perhaps when you are living in a small area (Bishop has a population of less than 4,000) with only one small hospital in your area, such breaches become more impactful.
That said, there’s no healthcare system that is totally immune to corrupt employees or insider breaches, and patients that move may find themselves dealing with a similar problem in their new location.
The paper says they’ll have more on this breach in tomorrow’s edition, so maybe something more will come out that may explain the patient’s reaction.