Hank Dudding reports: Federal and local authorities are investigating an identity-theft case that appears to have originated at Saint Francis Hospital and may involve hundreds of victims. U.S. postal inspector Katrina Chalmers confirmed Monday that the postal service is investigating the case, but she wouldn’t release any further details. Broadway was reluctant to...
Advocate Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn confirms it has fired an employee who improperly accessed private health records. The hospital has sent letters to 350 patients saying the unauthorized former worker looked at records that included addresses and social security numbers. The hospital says there’s no indication that any patient information was used...
Bruno Matarazzo Jr. reports: Police and security at Salem Hospital are investigating the theft of a laptop computer that contained personal and medical information on approximately 50 patients. A Hewlett-Packard laptop was stolen from the cardiology department between late November and last Thursday, when hospital nursing staff reported the theft to Salem police. In...
Over on FierceHealthIT, Anne Zieger writes: The problem is, nobody can put the data breach genie back in the bottle once it’s gotten out. Once data has been compromised, even a company with the billions in revenue enjoyed by TJX can make consumers feel completely insecure. And paying a huge settlement won’t do...
For what appears to be the second time this year, DVA Renal Healthcare (DaVita) has had to notify current or former patients that their data was stolen. In the most recent incident, a DaVita facility in Florida was burglarized and desktop computers were stolen. Although the computers were reportedly password-protected, there was no assertion...
Over on The Breach Blog, Evan Francen has written up some of the P2P breaches uncovered by Red Team Protection. It makes for fascinating reading, and a cautionary tale. If you have any patient or confidential information on your computer, installing or running file-sharing programs may result in you sharing much more than you...
Salvador Hernandez reports: Boxes with documents detailing confidential patient information, such as Social Security numbers and personal medical history, were found discarded next to a medical office building, which officials said could be a violation of patient confidentiality laws. The documents, which were retrieved by a doctor about 90 minutes after they were discovered,...
KSL reported on Nov. 14: Prosecutors say they’ve offered a plea deal to two men accused of obtaining stolen medical records. Thomas Anderson and Shadd Hartman each are charged with one count of felony theft by receiving stolen property and a count of unlawful possession of another’s identification documents. The Salt Lake Tribune reports...
Paul Davenport of the Associated Press reports: An Arizona appeals court panel ruled Friday that the Havasupai Indian tribe can proceed with a lawsuit that claims university researchers misused blood samples taken from tribal members. Overturning a judge’s 2007 dismissal of the case, a split Arizona Court of Appeals panel said the Havasupai and...
Ben Russell of the Independent reports: Confidential patient information has been lost in scores of cases, according to a catalogue of NHS data losses released last night. Files, computers and memory sticks containing details of thousands of patients have been lost according to details released under the Freedom of Information Act. You can...