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Security lapses reported involving hospital data

Healthcare Security Weekly, March 12, 2007

Security breaches involving information about hospital patients continue to make the news.

In Rhode Island, Attorney General Patrick Lynch launched an investigation into whether officials at the Westerly Hospital in Westerly, RI, knew about a security breach in which more than 2,000 medical records were posted on the Internet before an alarmed patient called police.

A hospital spokesman told the Associated Press that hospital officials learned about the security lapse only after a woman called Westerly police February 28 to alert them of the problem. The names, Social Security numbers, and medical records of patients were found published on a publicly accessible Web site, including detailed information about patients' surgical procedures and medical histories, as well as home addresses and insurance information.

In Dallas, hospital records for dozens of newborns were found in a trash bin at a condominium complex. An official from the Lake Pointe Medical Center in Rowlett said an ex-employee accidentally took the newborn care instruction records home with personal items from her desk and then discarded the records, reported the Dallas Morning News.

A resident of the condominium complex found the discharge papers for 40 babies when she took out her trash on March 1, the newspaper reported. She called police and they recovered a total of 61 medical records that contained names of parents and their phone numbers.

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