South Central VA Health Care Network (VISN 16)

Issue: Occupational physician verbally told an Human Resources that an employee she had sent down to the Emergency Room (ER) for treatment for possible stroke had tested positive for drugs after a urine drug screen was done. Update: 05/18/12:The patient/employee will…

Outcome: Education was provided. Referred to Human Resources for appropriate administrative action.…

Issue: A Release of Information (ROI) supervisor received a call from a Veteran stating they had received someone else's information in with the information they had requested from ROI. They are to mail the information back to the facility Update: 05/17/12:Veteran…

Outcome: Action to be taken against employee - must take time to assure they are only mailing information to one person on one person Privacy training is current.Admonishment letter. Letter should go out today from Director. Letter has gone out.. see…

Issue: A Veteran wrote to the Medical Center Director regarding someone else getting his appointment letter and a progress note. They had received their appointment information but got his information, too. This included full name, SSN, date of birth, address, appointment…

Outcome: Letter has gone out to Veteran.. see attachment. Unable to determine who had provided the information to the wrong individual. Privacy Tips have gone out to all staff via Outlook as well as they were also placed in the local…

Issue: A VA Employee was suspicious that a Veteran was committing travel fraud. Employee looked up Veteran on the Oklahoma State Court Network website and found the name of the Veteran's parole officer. Employee contacted the parole officer and notified parole…

Outcome: Education and appropriate administrative action have been taken.

Issue: A Veteran contacted the Privacy Officer (PO) to say that she had received correspondence notifying her of a scheduled appointment however, the envelope was not sealed properly. She stated neither the envelope nor letter looked like it had been tampered…

Outcome: Machine in mailroom that sorts and seals envelopes was scheduled for and received necessary maintenance. Mailroom staff were instructed to conduct quality control checks to ensure envelopes were sealing properly.…

Issue: Veteran A brought confidential information of another Veteran to the Mental Health Service. It was Veterans Appeals Control and Locator System (VACOLS) Appeal information from January 6, 2011. The VACOLS contains full SSN and medical information. Update: 05/11/12:The Veteran did…

Outcome: There was some sharing of information but it is not able to be determined since the individual that brought the information to the provider would not tell anything other than they had possession of the information.…

Issue: A Release of Information (ROI) employee released another Veterans records in error. Veteran A received Veteran Bs records by mistake. Veteran B received the correct medical records. Veteran A will bring Veteran Bs records to the ROI clerk on Friday,…

Outcome: Individual completed Privacy Awareness refresher training and was issued a written counseling/reprimand.

Issue: Employee misfaxed documents on a Veteran. Employee was notified by the person in the general public who received the fax at his home. Employee told person to destroy the documents. The Privacy Officer (PO) contacted the person and they had…

Outcome: Education was provided to the staff regarding faxing policies and procedures that is outlined in the CM 00-36. It was completed on 05/09/2012. The ticket information was forwarded to Human Resources for the appropriate administrative action.…

Issue: During a routine review of Employee A Sensitive Patient Access Reports (SPAR), a questionable entry was found and reported to the Privacy Officer (PO). Update: 05/04/12:Employee B who accessed Employee A's record had no justification to do so. Employee A…

Outcome: Training provided to Pharmacist who erroneously entered complainant's record.

Issue: Veteran A had an armband placed on his arm. He went to the rest room and realized it was not his information on the armband. The armband contained Veteran B's name, date of birth and full SSN. Update: 05/02/12:Veteran B…

Outcome: Credit monitoring letter went out 5 18 12. Appropriate actions taken by area to assure similar incident will not happen again.…