Health Information Management

Florida physician's donation creates security risk for 19,000 patients

HIPAA Weekly Advisor, June 2, 2008

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The generosity of a University of Florida College of Medicine at Jacksonville professor has resulted in an potential risk for 19,000 of his patients, according to a May 21 article in First Coast News.  

Francis D. Ong, MD, assistant professor of plastic surgery, donated a computer that contained the health records of many of his patients to a Jacksonville family. According to Ong, the recipient family replaced the computer’s operating system, and he believed this action would delete all patient information.

University policy, however, prohibits storing patient data on individual computer hard drives. "We deeply regret this event and apologize to our patients who it may have affected," Robert Nuss, MD, dean of the university’s Jacksonville campus, told First Coast News. "We have taken steps to prevent incidents of this type from occurring in the future and are continuing to educate our physicians and staff on our electronic data storage policies."

The family has since returned the computer to the University, according to the article.

 

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