Clement J. Zablocki Veterans Affairs Medical Center

Issue: Patient B's address was incorrectly pasted into a letter for Patient A, and thus mismailed. Contents of letter include upcoming appointment time and treatment suggestions for non-7332 MH diagnosis, along with contact information of VHA treating staff.

Outcome: 07/19/13: Patient A will be sent a HIPAA notification letter due to Protected Health Information (PHI) being disclosed.…

Issue: VA employee faxed the incorrect patient's contact information to County Court Coordinator. The patient whose information was inappropriately disclosed was intended for a different County Coordinator. Faxed material is being mailed back to VA. The fax contained the patient's name,…

Outcome: 07/19/13: The patient will receive a general letter of notification.…

Issue: VAMC Employee mistakenly combined Veteran A's and Veteran B's prescriptions in the same envelope. The medication label only contained the Veteran's name and medication type, but no other identifiers or sensitive information.…

Outcome: Data not available.

Issue: Employee placed Patient A's identification on a 10-5345 for releasing health information, but completed the form, sans signature, for the requestor. Requestor is NOK of deceased Patient B, instead of Patient A. NOK of Patient B then signed for information…

Outcome: 07/01/13: Veteran A's NOK will be sent a general notification letter.…

Issue: Veteran A was mailed Veteran B's prescription for Aspirin. After Veteran A received the Aspirin, Veteran A returned the unopened prescription to the VAMC. The medication label only had Veteran B's name and medication name (Aspirin) on it.…

Outcome: 06/17/13: Veteran B will be sent a notification letter. NOTE: There were a total of 24 Mis-Mailed incidents this reporting period. Because of repetition, the other 23 are not included in this report, but are included in the "Mis-Mailed Incidents"…

Issue: A VA employee, who is also a Veteran, received a Fee Services letter from our VAMC. Included in the envelope to the employee was another Veteran's Fee Services Letter. Upon receipt of the letter, the employee brought in the Veteran's…

Outcome: 06/06/13: One Veteran will be sent a notification letter.…

Issue: Veteran A's pharmacy supply medication was incorrectly mailed to Veteran B. Upon receiving the incorrect mailing, Veteran B returned Veteran A's medication supply.…

Outcome: 05/06/13: Veteran A will be sent a notification letter. 05/22/13: This was determined to be non-HITECH reportable by VHA Privacy Office. NOTE: There were a total of 20 Mis-Mailed incidents this reporting period. Because of repetition, the other 19 are…

Issue: We received an Inquiry Routing and Information System (IRIS) inquiry from a Veteran whose 7 volume claims file was lost by the Appleton/Cleveland Out Patient Clinics following his C&P exam back in September.

Outcome: 05/03/13: The Veteran will be sent a letter offering credit protection services. 05/22/13: This was determined to be HITECH reportable by VHA Privacy Office.…

Issue: Patient A's information was scanned inappropriately into Patient B's chart. Patient B requested copy of his records through the Release of Information (ROI) office, records were mailed. Patient B recognized Patient A's information in his chart, brought in letter to…

Outcome: 05/02/13: Patient A will be sent a HIPAA notification letter. 05/16/13: This was determined to be HITECH reportable by VHA Privacy Office.…

Issue: VA Employee A was in a patient's room and discovered a partial patient wristband on the floor of Employee B, who was seen at the VAMC a week ago. Employee B states that she had Employee C cut the wrist…

Outcome: 05/01/13: Employee B will receive a HIPAA letter of notification. 05/02/13: The Privacy Officer (PO) received the Employee wristband from the Supervisor, and it includes the employee's full SSN and date of birth. Employee B will receive a letter offering…