UCLA Medical Center leak becomes a flood
HIPAA Weekly Advisor, August 11, 2008
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The number of privacy breaches discovered by the California Department of Public Health at UCLA Medical Center continues to rise. In the months since information about a “well known” patient at UCLA Medical Center was leaked to the public, a number of similar breaches have been uncovered at the California hospital, the Los Angeles Times reported August 5.
The number of employees who inappropriately accessed medical records has nearly doubled since the original investigation, bringing the number of implicated individuals to 127, according to the newspaper.
Lawanda Jackson, a former UCLA Medical Center administrative assistant, allegedly inappropriately accessed 939 patient records between April 2003 and May 2007. She now faces federal criminal charges, the newspaper reported.
State regulators blame the hospital for its inability to control private patient information. "What we're seeing here is a clear pattern of repeated violations of patient medical records and patient confidentiality by UCLA," Kim Belshe, secretary of the state's Health and Human Services Agency, told the newspaper. "It is absolutely unacceptable."
UCLA Medical Center said it has notified all patients whose records Jackson allegedly viewed inappropriately. The hospital also is removing complete Social Security numbers from clinical data systems, enhancing security, and implementing new staff training.
"All other employees who were found to have violated patient confidentiality during our review have been disciplined, including some who have been terminated," David Feinberg, MD, chief executive of the UCLA Health System, said in a statement. "On behalf of the entire leadership of the UCLA Health System, I am deeply sorry for this failure, and the personal distress these breaches may have caused."
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