Albany VA Medical Center: Samuel S. Stratton

Issue: Veteran A is an inpatient. His family members reported to the Privacy Officer (PO) that the Doctor in charge when Veteran A was admitted disclosed information on 2 occasions to family members at the bedside as well as friends of…

Outcome: 05/20/15: The Incident Resolution Service Team has determined that the Veteran will be sent a HIPAA notification letter due to Protected Health Information (PHI) being disclosed.…

Issue: A VA supervisor who is on a 2 week suspension (need to confirm this) asked for a report to be printed from payroll. It included information on 5 employees to include their full name, pay period and amount of overtime…

Outcome: 05/14/15: The supervisor is pending removal on a charge of misuse of overtime funds, he requested and was given a report of overtime usage on 5-6 employees from 2007-present. It is believed that he requested the information in order to…

Issue: A VA Nurse reported that she inadvertently gave paper discharge instructions to the wrong Veteran upon leaving the Emergency Department. She claims that she discovered this and found the Veteran in the Pharmacy waiting for a medication fill and swapped…

Outcome: 03/09/15: The Incident Resolution Service Team has determined that there was a policy violation. While there was an unauthorized access/disclosure of data, it has been determined that the incident has a low probability of a risk of compromise.…

Issue: A VA employee accessed another Veteran employee's record inappropriately.

Outcome: 02/19/15: The Incident Resolution Service Team has determined that the employee will be sent a notification letter.…

Issue: A Veteran employee suddenly passed away. Another employee who was friends with the deceased accessed the medical record due to his not believing that he had actually passed away. He was looking for notes in the computer to confirm this.…

Outcome: 01/05/15: The Incident Resolution Service Team has determined that Veteran A's Next of Kin (NOK) will be sent a NOK notification letter. 01/13/14: Appeal accepted this is was not a breach, was a policy violation. Employee was a close friend…

Issue: During an internal Sensitive Patient Access Report (SPAR) review it was found that a nurse accessed a Veteran's ER notes thinking that he might be a candidate for the ambulatory surgery area. The employee was notified that she can't do…

Outcome: 12/17/14: The Incident Resolution Service Team has determined that Veteran A will be sent a notification letter.…

Issue: A family member of Veteran A came into the hospital looking for his cousin. According to information at the moment, the Medical Support Assistant (MSA) confirmed that the Veteran had just left. According to the Veteran, her address was given…

Outcome: 11/12/14: The Incident Resolution Service Team has determined that Veteran A will be sent a general notification letter.…

Issue: Veteran A was seen in a clinic and was handed an encounter form to give to the checkout desk. The Veteran left without stopping at desk. It was discovered that this Veteran left with an encounter form for Veteran B…

Outcome: 11/04/14: The Incident Resolution Service Team has determined that Veteran B will be sent a letter offering credit protection services.…

Issue: A VA employee sent an unencrypted email to 8 VA employees as well as 1 outside union employee. Email contained information on 2 VA employees consisting of full name, full SSN, home address and home phone number.…

Outcome: 10/29/14: The Incident Resolution Service Team has determined that there was a policy violation. While there was an unauthorized access/disclosure of data, it has been determined that the incident has a low probability of a risk of compromise.…

Issue: An end of shift report was found on the floor of a local hospital. Report contained information on 12 Veterans which included full name, full SSN, diagnosis, allergies, admitting diagnoses and date, vitals, patient problems, and handwritten information on each…

Outcome: 10/20/14: The Incident Resolution Service Team has determined that twelve Veterans will be sent letters offering credit protection services.…