E-mail error reveals names of 6,500 AIDS/HIV-positive patients
HIPAA Weekly Advisor, February 28, 2005
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A Palm Beach (FL) County health department statistician e-mailed Thursday a highly confidential list of names and addresses of 2,000 HIV-positive patients and 4,500 AIDS patients to more than 800 county health department employees, reported the Palm Beach Post.
The health department has launched a full investigation into the incident, headed by health department Director Dr. Jean Malecki.
"This will be a very, very aggressive internal investigation," Malecki told the Post. "So far, we believe this information has not gone beyond the health department. It was an obvious error in a secured technical environment."
The health department said it believes only 10 people opened the e-mail attachment. The statistician was reassigned to report directly to Malecki and aid in the investigation.
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