Minneapolis VA Health Care System

Issue: An OEF/OIF employee had 6 Veteran contact information from an outreach event in his backpack. He placed his backpack in back of his government car and parked it for weekend at his house, it was locked on 5/2/14. He could…

Outcome: 05/20/14: The Incident Resolution Team has determined that six Veterans will be sent letters offering credit protection services.…

Issue: Non-VA medical records belonging to a different Patient A were scanned into Patient B's CPRS chart. The Release of Information (ROI) office disclosed the records based on a Privacy Act request.

Outcome: 04/07/14: The Incident Resolution Team has determined that Patient A will be sent a letter offering credit protection services, as his full SSN and other information was disclosed.…

Issue: A Veteran who was refered to the University of Minnesota (U of M) for treatment was given an envelope to carry to the U of M provider. When the U of M provider opened the envelope it contained a clinic…

Outcome: 04/04/14: The envelope was sealed when opened by the University of Minnesota staff. The staff faxed a copy of the document to VA, then shredded their copy. The Incident Resolution Team has determined that there was a policy violation. While…

Issue: A contract CBOC employee handed a specimen bottle to Veteran A. The Veteran viewed the label and then reported he had the wrong label on his specimen. The specimen bottle contained Veteran B's name, date of birth and full SSN.…

Outcome: 02/26/14: Veteran A had the specimen bottle long enough to use it, then noticed it was not his and reported it to the nurse. Veteran B will receive a letter offering credit protection services.…

Issue: An employee accessed their fathers medical record seven times over past 12 months.

Outcome: 02/11/14: Veteran A will be sent a notification letter.…

Issue: A VA employee identified herself as a VA radiology tech on Facebook, then posted a comment about a Veteran that she had performed an x-ray on and supplied a link to a media article that named the Veteran.

Outcome: 01/30/14: One patient will be sent a notification letter.…

Issue: A provider accessed a patient medical record and is not part of the patient's care team.

Outcome: 12/03/13: Patient A will be sent a notification letter.…

Issue: Veteran A accessed his MyHealtheVet account and had a note that included Veteran B's name, SSN, date of birth and protected health information (PHI) on it

Outcome: 11/21/13: Veteran B will receive a letter offering credit protection services. 12/24/13: Both Veterans' records were involved. Their records were switched in their charts and both were accessible from MyHealtheVet. Both Veterans will receive a letter offerring credit protection services.…

Issue: A nurse gave Patient A Patient B's discharge orders. Patient A took them home and after realizing they were not his called to report it.…

Outcome: 11/05/13: Patient B will be sent a letter offering credit protection services.…

Issue: An employee working in a Community Based Outpatient Clinic handed a patient some records which had another patient's non-VA records mixed in with. After several weeks the patient reviewed the records and realized they were not his. He returned them…

Outcome: 10/07/13: Due to date of birth and medical information being exposed, Veteran B will be sent a letter offering credit protection services.…