New Mexico VA Health Care System

Issue: The Privacy Officer (PO) received notice of Veteran A reporting to his Primary Care provider that he had inappropriately received the paperwork for another Veteran (Veteran B) which had been incorrectly sent to the address of Veteran A. The information…

Outcome: 11/04/13: Veteran B will receive a letter offering credit protection services.…

Issue: A privacy complaint was investigated and revealed that Employees A, B and C had accessed a co-worker's record without a need to know.

Outcome: 09/04/13: The co-worker will receive a general notification letter. VA employees are consider trusted entities and take the Privacy and Security Awareness training and sign the Rules of Behavior.…

Issue: Veteran A received mail from the VA that was not his. He returned the information. This was a 10-5345 form asking Veteran B to sign for billing purposes. 7332 information was included on the form.

Outcome: 08/29/13: Veteran B will receive a HIPAA letter of notification.…

Issue: During the course of an investigation of employees accessing a Veteran's record without a need to know, additional violations regarding employees accessing other employees' records were discovered affecting 2 employees. This number may increase.

Outcome: 08/21/13: The Privacy Officer (PO) asked Human Resources (HR) to provide a list of all employees in that service. She plan to run a Sensitive Patient Access Report (SPAR) on each employee. 08/23/13: Investigation shows that 11 more employees had…

Issue: Veteran A called the Privacy Office to report that the Alamogordo Clinic printed out his information and he noticed at the bottom of the page the PHI of another Veteran. He noticed this after he returned home. He will destroy…

Outcome: 08/19/13: Due to full SSN being disclosed, Veteran B will be sent a letter offering credit protection services.…

Issue: The Sensitive Patient Access Report (SPAR) entries show access to Veteran's record by multiple employees without a need to know.

Outcome: 08/16/13: The employee will be sent a notification letter.…

Issue: A Release of Information clerk sent Veteran A's medical records to Veteran B.

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

Issue: Veteran A received the discharge instructions and procedure results of Veteran B.

Outcome: 08/06/13: Veteran B will be sent a letter offering credit protection services due to full name and full SSN being disclosed.…

Issue: A person from Albuquerque called to report that the VA was calling him and leaving messages for a Veteran about care etc. This has gone on for a month and a half.

Outcome: 08/01/13: One Veteran will be sent a notification letter.…

Issue: A nurse disclosed sensitive protected health information (PHI), including 7332 information, to a patient's wife without authorization.

Outcome: 09/03/13: One patient will be sent a notification letter.…