VA Eastern Colorado Health Care System(ECHCS)

Issue: An employee reported that a VA issued camera used to take wound care pictures is missing. The VA police were notified. The pictures were labeled with the last names and last four numbers of the social security number. It is…

Outcome: 10/20/14: The Incident Resolution Service Team has determined that all eleven Veterans affected will be sent a notification letter.…

Issue: Veteran A called to report that he had received Veteran Bs records on CD in the mail. The Veteran returned the disc to the hospital after discovery.…

Outcome: 10/10/14: The Incident Resolution Service Team has determined that Veteran B will be sent a letter offering credit protection services.…

Issue: A Veteran called to report that an employee in the Emergency Room gave a patient another patients appointment profile and an appointment reminder letter. The information contained the individuals full, name, address, last four numbers of the social security number,…

Outcome: 10/09/14: The Incident Resolution Service Team has determined that the patient will be sent a HIPAA letter of notification.…

Issue: A warning feature on the prescription dispensing system was not functioning properly and a patient was given the wrong medication. The pharmacy technician did not catch the error. Patient A was given his or her medication along with patient Bs…

Outcome: 08/06/14: The Incident Resolution Service Team has determined that Patient B will be sent a HIPAA notification letter due to Protected Health Information (PHI) being disclosed.…

Issue: Veteran A was given Veteran B's appointment letter while they were at a VA clinic. The information disclosed included the name, address, last 4 of the SSN, and the appointment date and time. Veteran A returned the letter to the…

Outcome: 06/18/14: The IncidentRresolution Service Team determined that Veteran B will receive a HIPAA letter of notification…

Issue: A Veteran reported that they had received two other Veterans lab results in the mail with their results. The information disclosed included names and addresses of the other two Veterans. The Veteran is mailing the information back to the Privacy…

Outcome: 06/17/14: The Incident Resolution Service Team has determined that two Veterans will be sent a HIPAA notification lettesr due to Protected Health Information (PHI) being disclosed.…

Issue: Two biomedical device laptops were discovered missing on 05/20/14. VA Police were notified of the event. The two missing laptops were password protected but not encrypted due to being attached to biomedical devices. The laptops were located on mobile test…

Outcome: 05/21/14: Additional questions have been sent to the Information Security Officers (ISO) and Privacy Officer (PO) regarding the missing laptops. Update: The laptops were not encrypted as they were attached to biomedical devices. The laptops were VA issued equipment (EE#56243…

Issue: A patient was given another patients appointment schedule. The patient discovered the incident and reported it to the service that made the error within a few hours of it happening. The information compromised included the patients name, and the last…

Outcome: 05/07/14: The Incident Resolution Team has determined that one Patient will be sent a HIPAA notification letter due to Protected Health Information (PHI) being disclosed.…

Issue: On May 1, 2014, a pharmacist placed the paperwork for Veteran A in a medication bag for Veteran B. Veteran B returned Veteran A's paperwork to pharmacy. Pharmacy contacted Veteran A and is attempting retrieve Veteran Bs information. The pharmacist…

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

Issue: A Veteran received another Veterans appointment letter while making an appointment at the desk at a community out based clinic. The veteran did not realize the error until they left the clinic. The letter contained the other veterans name, address,…

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.…