Health Information Management

Medical center employee steals PHI

HIPAA Weekly Advisor, October 30, 2006

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Seattle-based Swedish Medical Center is sending letters to 1,100 patients to warn them about possible identity theft after an employee allegedly stole PHI from patient charts.

The affected patients include inpatients and day-surgery patients who received care at Swedish's Ballard campus between June 22 and September 21. Local police are investigating a Swedish employee for misusing the identifying information of three patients. Although there aren't indications that the employee misused other patients' PHI, people receiving the mailing should check their credit records, Swedish officials said in a release.

Swedish has hired a third-party to help patients review their credit records for signs of unauthorized activity.



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