Phoenix VA Health Care System

Issue: Today, 12/29/14, the Privacy Officer (PO) was informed by Veteran C in the Patient Advocate Office that his son, Veteran A, received medical records for Veteran B. When Veteran A was hospitalized in October 2014, he requested his medical records…

Outcome: 12/29/14: The Incident Resolution Service Team has determined that Veterans A and B will be sent a letter offering credit protection services.…

Issue: Today, 12/19/14, The Outpatient Clinic provided the Privacy Officer (PO) with Veteran As report that he received his medical records along with Veteran Bs medical records. Veteran A requested and received his medical records from the facility by mail. The…

Outcome: 12/22/14: The Incident Resolution Service Team has determined that Veteran B will be sent a letter offering credit protection services.…

Issue: Today, 12/4/2014, Pharmacy reported Veteran B's medication was mailed to Veteran A along with his own medication. This was reported by the recipient Veteran A today. Neither medications were controlled substances. Pharmacy has sent a return mailer to retrieve the…

Outcome: 12/05/14: The Incident Resolution Service Team has determined that Veteran B will be sent a HIPAA notification letter due to Protected Health Information (PHI) being disclosed.…

Issue: Today, 12/04/14, Privacy reports a medication was returned by a Veterans caregiver on 11/25/14. The caregiver picked up Veterans medication and realized there was Veteran B's medication in the bag also. Medications were not opened but returned within 30 minutes.…

Outcome: 12/05/14: The Incident Resolution Service Team has determined that Veteran B will be sent a HIPAA notification letter due to Protected Health Information (PHI) being disclosed.…

Issue: Today, 11/20/14, a Veteran employee filed a privacy complaint after receiving his Sensitive Patient Access Report (SPAR) yesterday. The Veteran highlighted fifty-five staff names on the SPAR report. She believes staff accessed her medical record without her authorization or a…

Outcome: 04/30/15: The Incident Resolution Service Team has determined that the Veteran/employee will be sent a HIPAA notification letter due to Protected Health Information (PHI) being accessed inappropriately.…

Issue: Today, 11/03/14, the Privacy Officer (PO) received a report that Veteran As wife received Veteran Bs medication education sheet by mail last week. Veteran A also received his own with medication. His wife provided a copy of this but did…

Outcome: 11/03/14: The Incident Resolution Service Team has determined that Veteran B will be sent a HIPAA notification letter due to Protected Health Information (PHI) being disclosed.…

Issue: Today, 10/09/14, the mailroom reported the return of packages by USPS that were mailed by the facility on 09/25/14. There were five packages mailed but only four have returned. The packages are damaged and wholly or partially opened. The packages…

Outcome: 10/10/14: ROI+ is the tracking software for protected health information (PHI) disclosures. It shows that 1600 document sets were compiled of medical records for one person. This was a 5-year span of his medical records. The actual page count is…

Issue: Today, 10/03/14, Pharmacy reports medications sent mail by mail were never received by Veteran, from July 2014 to current date. This was identified today when Veteran requested missing medications from Pharmacy. Medications were delivered from the Consolidated Mail Outpatient Pharmacy…

Outcome: 11/13/14: The Incident Resolution Service Team has determined that the Veteran will be sent a HIPAA notification letter due to Protected Health Information (PHI) being disclosed.…

Issue: Today, 9/30/2014, VBA reported a Veteran privacy complaint which was reported to them on 9/24/2014. Veteran B reported that he received a C&P appointment reminder for Veteran A. A letter for Veteran B details appointment location, date and time. The…

Outcome: 10/08/14: The Incident Resolution Service Team has determined that Veteran A will be sent a notification letter.…

Issue: Today, 09/17/14, the Privacy Officer (PO) received a report from a Veteran through the Patient Advocate Office. Patient was on the inpatient Mental Health Unit. Had been recently aware that his medical records have been confused with that of his…

Outcome: 09/17/14: The Incident Resolution Service Team determined that the Veteran will receive a HIPAA letter of notification.…