Desert Pacific Healthcare Network (VISN 22)

Issue: On 02/21/12 at 07:40 AM, a VA employee notice a piece of paper on the ground. The employee retrieved the paper and notice it conatined a patient's full name and date of birth. Update: 02/22/12:Twelve (12) Patients will be sent…

Outcome: The food service supervisor will conduct an employee meeting to reinforce the correct practices. Staff will sign in to ensure all staff have received this training review. PO has consulted and counseled supervisor on the importance of safe guarding patient…

Issue: On 01/13/12, a staff member found several pages of patient laboratory information on the East Drive/parking area of Building 500. Fourteen (14) pages of information were collected from the lot and were reviewed by laboratory personnel. It was found that…

Outcome: The environmental VA employees that collect the shredding have been retrained and advised by the Privacy Officer; their immediate supervisor; and the Chief to implement a plan for securing the shredding from start to finish. The plan needs to be…

Issue: A Veteran reported that he received a compact disk with his medical records from the Release of Information (ROI) department with three other Veterans' information comingled, including name, full SSN and diagnosis. Update: 02/03/12:The three Veterans will receive a letter…

Outcome: The employee's supervisor and Chief of the Department has been notified. The Privacy Officer and supervisor and Chief will provide a mass training to the department for privacy. The training will be provided to staff for the updated software. Effective…

Issue: Veteran A reported that he was given paperwork after an appointment and co-mingled with his paperwork was an Appointment Schedule that listed his name and six other Veterans appointment times, full name, full SSN, phone number, service connect percentage, what…

Outcome: Three nurses printed out the appointment schedule, one nurse gave her schedule to the Provider; another nurse had already printed out one for the Provider and placed it on the nurses counter. A nurse accidently picked it up while collecting…

Issue: Veteran A received Veteran B's authorization form. Veteran A called to report the incident and agreed to destroy the authorization. Information disclosed included Veteran B's full name, last 4 of the SSN, year of birth, address, diagnosis, and what the…

Outcome: Employee self reported to mistakenly putting the authorization form into the wrong envelope. Privacy Officer verbally educated employee regarding safeguarding Veteran's PHI/PII. Credit monitoring letter mailed February 2, 2012 and uploaded into PSETS.…

Issue: On 01/19/12, Veteran A was given the written test results of Veteran B by a staff member in the reception area. Update: 01/23/12:Veteran B will be sent a letter offering credit protection services, as his full SSN and medical information…

Outcome: All staff members were reminded to double check identification of patients whenever PHI is communicated and to review TMS training addressing Information Privacy.

Issue: A VA employee accidently handed Veteran A's DD 214 to Veteran B. The DD214 was returned to the VA employee by Veteran B within 15 minutes. The person or Veteran that the DD214 belongs to was with the VA employee…

Outcome: The employee who reported the incident and contacted the privacy officer is aware that to report any violations such as this to the privacy officer and to try to avoid any further inadvertent disclosures in the future when handling sensitive…

Issue: Veteran A received Veteran B's authorization paperwork. Veteran A mailed the authorization paperwork back to VA and reported the incident. PHI/PII included name, last 4 SSN, address, year of birth, diagnosis, and what the authorization was for. Update: 01/17/12:Veteran B…

Outcome: Supervisor verbally counseled employee. Notification letter uploaded and mailed on January 18, 2012.…

Issue: Veteran A received Veteran B's approved authorization form via mail. Protected Health Information/Personally Identifiable Information (PHI/PII) included full name, year of birth, last 4 SSN, address, condition, and what the authorization was approved for. Update: 01/12/12:Veteran B will be sent…

Outcome: On January 6, 2012 while mailing authorizations, employee mistakenly placed the Veteran's authorization into another Veteran's envelope. Credit monitoring letter uploaded and mailed on January 12, 2012. Employee counseled by supervisor. Supervisor to conduct a refresher training for entire staff…

Issue: On 01/11/12, a VA employee reported that a member of his staff found the Surgical Service schedule between Building 126 and Building 8. The schedule has a total of 19 Veterans' personally identifiable information (PII) and protected health information (PHI)…

Outcome: Privacy Officer has discussed the issue with the Supervisor and staff will be re-trained in proper handling of protected information.