South Central VA Health Care Network (VISN 16)

Issue: Patient A returned a package mailed to him from the Fayetteville VA containing his medications & 4 medications belonging to another patient. Update: 11/30/11:Patient B will be sent a notification letter.…

Outcome: Chief of service counseled the employees involved.

Issue: A VA Supervisor reported that he accessed one of his subordinate employee's record trying to determine if the employee could return to work. Update: 01/18/12:The Supervisor inappropriately accessed the employee's medical record however the Supervisor would already have access to…

Outcome: Employee did access another employees record inappropriately. Employee was required to take Privacy and Security Training again. The appropriate administrative action has been taken.…

Issue: Veteran called and stated that he received a package from UPS addressed to him to him but the medication belonged to Veteran B. He returned the medication to the pharmacy. Update: 11/29/11:Veteran B will be sent a notification letter due…

Outcome: The Chief of the services counseled the VA employees involved.

Issue: Veteran A reported to the Pharmacy Booth stating he was discharged from the hospital . He picked up his discharge medication. The medication bag had his medication and Veteran B's paperwork. Update: 11/29/11:Veteran B will be sent a notification letter…

Outcome: Chief of service counseled VA employees about being more alert when dispensing medication.

Issue: A veteran contacted the VA Health Resource Center, a VA contact center where veterans, their dependants and others nationwide can obtain informaitoon on veteran's benefits and help with billing problems, to state he had received another veterans billiing statement in…

Outcome: Enployeed counseled regarding protection of personally identifiable information and instructed to retake PA training

Issue: Health Resource Center states Veteran A received Veteran B's statement of medical care cost recovery account activity in error in the mail. Update: 11/18/11:Veteran B will be sent a notification letter.…

Outcome: Unable to determine who mailed the letter to the wrong person.

Issue: A VA Engineering employee was about to make modifications to an office and found a stack of 46 folders with full name and full SSN of patients and/or employees. No documents were contained in the folders. Update: 11/21/11:Exact count was…

Outcome: The Privacy Officer (PO) was unable to determine specific clerk who left the folders. The PO recommended that the C&P/Agent Orange administrative staff complete refresher PRIVACY training as well as RECORDS MANAGEMENT training.…

Issue: At a Merit System Protection Board (MSPB) hearing, terminated Employee A came to testify on behalf of Employee B. Terminated Employee A brought a service consult list that was 3 pages long and contained 121 patients' names, last 4 digits…

Outcome: Notification letter was sent out on 12/9/2011. Sent out the Privacy Clinic 1, which educates all employees that it is not permitted for an employee to use, or provide Veteran\xe2\x80\x99s Protected Health Information (PHI) to an outside attorney in support…

Issue: Patient came to medical center for an appointment and handed the VA employee a list that he says someone at the CBOC gave to him. Due to the age of the veteran it is believed that he may have picked…

Outcome: Staff will maintain clinic schedule list on clip board to insure it is not picked up by accident.

Issue: A VA Employee entered her eOPF and found another employee's information had been uploaded. There is concern that the specific records she was looking for in her eOPF were not there, possibly indicating her records were also uploaded to incorrect…

Outcome: PO recommended to Director that eOPF of all staff be reviewed to ensure no other files contained incorrect documents. Credit monitoring letter sent to one employee, credit monitoring letter picked up by the other employee.…