Health Data

NY: Two certified nurses faces false records charges

Victoria E. Freile of the Democrat and Chronicle reports: New York Attorney General Andrew M. Cuomo today announced that his office has filed charges against two certified nurse aides who worked in Rochester-area nursing homes. One aide allegedly used patients’ personal information to secure utility services for her home and the other aide allegedly...

UK: Personal files abandoned at derelict nursery

Rhys Thomas of the Hucknall Dispatch reports: Personal files of more than 100 parents and children were left behind in an apparently shocking disregard for privacy when a Hucknall nursery moved premises. The discovery was made at the derelict former site of the Rocking Horse Day Nursery, on Watnall Road, after a tip-off to...

HOSP ID-THEFT DUO NAILED

Erika Martinez reports in the NY Post: Two information specialists at a Brooklyn hospital stand accused of swiping patient information to open bogus credit-card accounts and shop online while working. Jessica Paul, 23, and Jessica Darden, 20, of Maimonides Medical Center in Borough Park, accessed patient files and ran the names through a credit-check...

Medical Secrets: An NBC 24 Exclusive

Aaron Brilbeck of NBC24 reports: Every four seconds, someone’s identity is stolen in America. Most of us go to great lengths to protest our identities, often shredding personal documents at home. And medical professionals are required to do the same. But we found out, many aren’t. NBC 24’s Aaron Brilbeck went dumpster diving in...

UF Doctor Quits After Putting Medical Records at Risk (update)

As a follow-up to a story we reported here: The private health information of 1900 local patients may have been compromised when a Jacksonville doctor gave his computer away. Dr. Francis D. Ong resigned from his position as a University of Florida assistant professor of plastic surgery at the College of Medicine-Jacksonville. UF privacy...

Canada: Calgary seniors' health information on stolen computers

Dozens of Calgary seniors are alarmed after learning their credit-card numbers, addresses and health-card numbers were stored on computers that were stolen recently. The Academy Hearing Centre in Brentwood Mall, which provides hearing tests and equipment, mostly to seniors, recently mailed out letters warning of the theft. “I got scared,” said one elderly female...

HealthSpring says laptop with personal data stolen

Wendy Lee reports: Nashville-based managed care company HealthSpring Inc. said Wednesday a laptop computer containing personal information of about 450 state residents was stolen in March. The laptop, believed to contain names, dates of birth and social security numbers of about 9,000 individuals, was stolen from a HealthSpring employee’s locked car on March 30...

Two plead guilty to stealing confidential information

Paul Shukovsky reports: A Belfair couple pleaded guilty in federal court Tuesday to stealing identities and using trickery to obtain confidential medical, tax and employment information for private investigators who paid them fees for the information. Emilio Torrella, 36, and Brandy Torella, 27, face a mandatory-minimum sentence of two years for aggravated identity theft,...

CT: ID information stolen from Saint Mary's Hospital

Marc Silvistrini of the Republican-American reports: A former Saint Mary’s Hospital employee has been charged by police in the theft of names and social security numbers of a half dozen patients, a hospital official and state police said Tuesday. State police told the hospital the thefts were confined to the Endoscopy Department and affect...

UF warns patients of security breach

University of Florida officials will be notifying about 1,900 patients of a UF plastic surgeon that their private health information might have been breached after the information was managed and disposed of improperly. Dr. Francis D. Ong, a UF assistant professor of plastic surgery at the UF College of Medicine-Jacksonville, stored unsecured digital photographs...