Gulf Coast Veterans Health Care System

Issue: A Veteran had been given the protected health information (PHI) for six other Veterans by mistake. This PHI had been placed in an envelope for the Veteran. He did not open it until this morning. He immediately called the appropriate…

Outcome: 12/05/13: The six Veterans will receive a letter offering credit protection services.…

Issue: Protected health information (PHI) and prescription(s) belonging to Veteran A were misdirected to Veteran B. It is noted the Veterans have the same first and last names with different middle initials. Also, the Veterans demographic information indicates the same address…

Outcome: 11/14/13: Veteran A will be sent a notification letter.…

Issue: An employee accessed the medical record of a Veteran to document administration of a vaccination. The employee was the wife of the Veteran patient.…

Outcome: 11/05/13: Veteran A will be sent a notification letter.…

Issue: Employee A inappropriately accessed Employee B's CPRS record. Employee B recently passed away. When questioned, Employee A stated she knew Employee B and was curious as to the reason he died.…

Outcome: 11/01/13: Employee B's next of kin will receive a notification letter.…

Issue: Three pages of laboratory results belonging to Veteran A were mismailed to Veteran B.

Outcome: 08/28/13: Veteran A will be sent a letter offering credit protection services.…

Issue: At least two employees entered each others electronic medical records.

Outcome: 08/28/13: Two employees will receive HIPAA notification letters.…

Issue: On 05/21/13, Veteran A was seen at the JACC Community Based Outpatient Clinic (CBOC) and received information from the provider for educational purposes. The information the provider handled to Veteran A included 12 pages of medical information belonging to Veteran…

Outcome: 06/21/13: Veteran B will be sent a letter offering credit protection services.…

Issue: VA staff entered the CPRS record of a co-worker who had committed suicide that weekend. Eleven entries made by nine different employees were questioned by the Information Security Officer (ISO). Respective Service Chiefs reported seven of the accesses were appropriate,…

Outcome: 06/20/13: The deceased co-worker's next of kin (NOK) will receive NOK notification…

Issue: An employee sent Protected Health Information (PHI) for one Veteran to co-workers home email address and Facebook. The Privacy Officer (PO) was notified of this event by the employee's Service Chief. The PO will have the employee immediately delete emails…

Outcome: 06/19/13: The information at risk included the Veteran's name and diagnosis. The information was posted on Facebook on 06/17/13 at 9:30 PM and was taken down after noon on 06/19/13. The Veteran will receive a HIPAA letter of notification.…

Issue: Veteran A reported that he inappropriately received copies of Veteran B's medical record. Veteran A reported and relinquished to a CBOC clerk an envelope containing one Progress Note belonging to Veteran B consisting of 4 pages; one VAF 10-5345a, signed…

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