Tennessee Valley Healthcare System

Issue: Veteran A received a patient notification in the mail from TVHS. Upon opening, he discovered the envelope also contained a patient notification letter belonging to Veteran B. The document contained Veteran B's full name, address, and lab results. Arrangements were…

Outcome: 05/29/14: The Incident Resolution Team determined that veteran B will receive a HIPAA letter of notification, since his protected health information (PHI) was compromised.…

Issue: The Veteran reported the following to the Privacy Officer on 5/27/14: A Veteran, who at that time was going through a VA Recovery Treatment Program, was contacted by a person outside the VA who informed the Veteran that he had…

Outcome: 05/27/14: The Incident Resolution Team has determined that the Veteran will be sent a HIPAA notification letter due to Protected Health Information (PHI) being disclosed.…

Issue: This incident occurred May 12, 2014, during a Nursing Shift Report that was being held to discuss the status of the Veterans on that specific Ward to the oncoming shift of Nurses. During this Shift Report, it was noted that…

Outcome: 05/19/14: The Incident Resolution Team has determined that twenty Veterans will be sent a notification letter.…

Issue: This incident occurred at a Contracted CBOC in Columbia, TN (Maury County). The Privacy Official for Humana notified the VHA BAA Office of this incident who then forwared to the TVHS Privacy Officer to log. On April 30th, a Contract…

Outcome: 05/06/14: The Incident Resolution Team has determined that Veteran A will be sent a letter offering credit protection services due to name and DoB being disclosed.…

Issue: At 12:00 PM, a Health Informatics Specialist employee at the Nashville Campus found two Gains and Loss documents in a unisex restroom, B-102 (first floor across from Voluntary Service). The employee retrieved the documents and gave them to the Privacy…

Outcome: 05/05/14: The Incident Resolution Team has determined that one hundred twenty-six Veterans will be sent a notification letter. 05/12/14: Two Veterans are deceased, 124 notification letters and 2 next of kin.…

Issue: The Privacy Officer, Nashville Campus, received an email from the Supervisor, Release of Information (ROI) Veteran A received four pages of faxed documents from ROI, Murfreesboro Campus, which belonged to Veteran B. The ROI supervisor made arrangements for Veteran A…

Outcome: 05/02/14: The Incident Resolution Team has determined that Veteran B will be sent a letter offering credit protection services, as his full SSN was disclosed.…

Issue: Veteran A returned a Patient Notification Letter to the Columbia Community Based Outpatient Clinic (CBOC) which belonged to Veteran B. Veteran A stated the information was inadvertently included in an envelope mailed to him.…

Outcome: 04/28/14: The Incident Resolution Team has determined that Veteran B will be sent a HIPAA notification letter due to Protected Health Information (PHI) being disclosed.…

Issue: The Patient Advocate, Chattanooga Outpatient Clinic (COPC), notified the Privacy Officer, Nashville Campus, of the following incident: Today, Veteran A dropped off an envelope at the Chattanooga COPC. The envelope contained a Patient Notification letter from the Maury County (Columbia)…

Outcome: 04/16/14: The Incident Resolution Team determined that Veteran B will receive a HIPAA letter of notification.…

Issue: Back on May 15, 2013, a Veteran requested his private Audiologist telefax his records to the VA Clarksville, TN Outpatient Clinic for his Primary Care Provider. On March 27, 2014, the Veteran had an appointment and inquired about the audiology…

Outcome: 03/31/14: The Incident Resolution Team has determined that Veteran A will be sent a letter offering credit protection services.…

Issue: The Privacy Officer received a telephone call from Veteran A who called to report that when he received a Patient Notification Letter of Test Results in the mail for him, he also noticed he received the same type of letter…

Outcome: 03/24/14: The Incident Resolution Team has determined that Veteran B will be sent a HIPAA notification letter due to Protected Health Information (PHI) being disclosed.…