Minneapolis VA Health Care System

Issue: Employee accessed medical records to conduct an unauthorized audit of her co-worker.

Outcome: 10/03/13: The co-worker will be sent a notification letter.…

Issue: A nurse mis-faxed a patient's medical record to a small business. The intended recipient was a home health care agency.

Outcome: 09/30/13: The Patient will be sent a letter offering credit protection services.…

Issue: A VA LPN accessed a family member's CPRS chart. The LPN also entered notes and scheduled appointments but was not part of care team/clinic where patient was treated.

Outcome: 09/09/13: The family member will be sent a notification letter.…

Issue: Veteran is inpatient status. The patient's wallet sent home with another patient's family. This included his Medicare card and credit cards.…

Outcome: 07/31/13: The patient will receive a letter offering credit protection services.…

Issue: Patient's personal belongings went home with another patient's family. This included his wallet with credit card and drivers license.

Outcome: 07/31/13: The patient will receive a letter offering credit protection services. 08/05/13: The patient is deceased. There is no next of kin (NOK) but there is a court appointmed estate lawyer who is settling out the estate. The lawyer will…

Issue: Letter mailed to patient with Name, SSN, and DOB label affixed to envelope vice Name and Address label.

Outcome: 07/31/13: The patient will receive a letter offering credit protection services.…

Issue: During the training of the new contract Community Based Outpatient Clinic (CBOC) staff, a specimen envelope was handed to the wrong patient. Upon realizing it was not his, he returned and reported it. The specimen contained the other patient's name…

Outcome: 07/05/13: One Patient will be sent a letter offering credit protection services due to full name and full SSN being exposed.…

Issue: Appointment letter regarding a veteran was inadvertently mailed to another veteran.

Outcome: 07/08/13: One Veteran will be sent a HIPAA notification letter due to Protected Health Information (PHI) being disclosed.…

Issue: A Prosthetics employee faxed a consult request to a carpenter (vendor), which included more than the minimum necessary. It included the patient's name, address, full SSN and diagnosis.…

Outcome: 06/19/13: The patient will receive a letter offering credit protection services.…

Issue: Veteran A admitted receiving Veteran B's records but refused to return them to this facility. The records contained Veteran B's name, address, date of birth, full SSN and projected health information (PHI).…

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