Desert Pacific Healthcare Network (VISN 22)

Issue: A Domiciliary employee/Veteran requested an access log of the employees that accessed their record and an employee co-workers name appeared on the report, however, the patient/Veteran has never been a patient in the Dom. The medical record contains the employee/Veteran's…

Outcome: The Assistant Chief of the Dom is working with HR to determine what actions should be taken due to the employee's name documented on the access log report as entering a coworkers record without proper authority. the Pharmacy employee left…

Issue: A Medical Clerk mailed 28 appointments to patients. She printed off labels with the patients name, full social security numbers, and address. The mail room intercepted 25 of them. Three were actually mailed with the PII on the outside of…

Outcome: PO and supervisor had the employee re do her privacy training and her appointment management training.

Issue: The contractor that moves furniture for the medical center removed furniture from an office and disposed of it in a dumpster. The cabinet that they removed had an employee's Personally Identifiable Information (PII), including: the Date of Birth (DoB), address,…

Outcome: The contractor's have been retrained and completed the Privacy Awareness Training. The Equifax Letter has been completed. The ISO's will upload the letter.

Issue: A VA social worker sent a Facebook message to 6 other social workers containing the name, diagnosis, and links to YouTube videos of a Veteran patient. The videos linked were not related to his VA care. Update: 07/22/11:The social worker…

Outcome: The employee's supervisor and HR were informed of the incident. Employee was educated on why this disclosure was inappropriate, and instructed how such matters should be handled in the future - via a secure VA message and only when necessary,…

Issue: A nurse in the psychiatric ward provided Patient A with a medication listing, attached was Patient B mental health progress note. Patient A returned the progress note back to nursing later in the day upon noticing it did not belong…

Outcome: Credit monitoring letter signed and mailed July 15, 2011. Employee in error attached a progress note to another patients medication listing. Supervisor verbally counseled employee on the proper privacy protocols.…

Issue: On 07/11/11, two employees picked up a roll of five (5) patient stickers for Patient A and five (5) patient stickers for two other patients (Patients B and C). The stickers were on the sidewalk adjacent to Seventh Street in…

Outcome: On 19 July two credit monitor letters were sent out to the individual affect by the loss of the patient stickers. The Privacy Officer will post an announcement in the postmaster reminding the staff of the importance of protecting patient…

Issue: Veteran A received Veteran B medication. PII included full name and medication type. Call Center employee change Veteran B address in error on April 22, 2011 which caused the prescription package to be sent to the wrong Veteran. Update: 05/12/11:Veteran…

Outcome: While updating a Veteran's address, a Call Center employee mistakenly changed the wrong Veteran's address. When Veteran requested medication refills, the medications were mailed to the wrong address. Upon notification on May 10, 2011 from the Veteran who received the…

Issue: On 04/22/11, a VA employee found a folder with a sticker containing patients full name, full SSN, full DOB, and ward information in the womens restroom. Update: 04/27/11:Patient A will be sent a letter offering credit protection services.…

Outcome: Privacy Officer sent the signed credit monitoring letter to the Veteran on 5/3/11. Postmaster sent out to the hospital staff re: safeguard and dispose protected health information.

Issue: On 04/26/11,a VA employee gave an envelope containing Veteran A's medication documents (total of 3 pages) to the Alternative Privacy Officer. The documents were mismailed to Veteran B. The envelope was mailed by VA Long Beach Pharmacy. The information on…

Outcome: Outpatient supervisor provided counseling to the two staff members involved in the mismailing on 4/27/11. Privacy officer sent the signed HIPAA notification letter to the Veteran on 5/3/11.…

Issue: A Medical Administrative support Assistant (MSA) Clerk from Compensation and Pension (C&P) mailed out Veteran A's DD214 to Veteran B. The information that was disclosed included Veteran A's name, DOB, full Social Security number, and home of record. Update: 04/15/11:Veteran…

Outcome: Employee was provided one-on-one training by supervisor on proper mail handling procedures.