ST HELENA HOSPITAL-CLEARLAKE

Report ID: MCXY11.01, California Department of Public Health

Reported Entity: ST HELENA HOSPITAL-CLEARLAKE

Issue:

Based on interview and record review, the facility failed to prevent unauthorized access and disclosure of confidential information when Patient 3's birth certificate information was inadvertently released to the newspaper. The paper was not authorized to receive the information. This failure resulted in possible unauthorized use of information and was a violation of the patient's right to privacy. Findings:In an interview with the Privacy Officer on 8/05/14 at 11 a.m., she stated that the information regarding births was submitted to the Recorder's Office and to the newspapers, and the information submitted was not the same. The information was sorted and placed in envelopes to be mailed. The employee placed the birth certificate data in the wrong envelope. The Privacy Officer confirmed the information included on the document should not have been released to the paper.Review of the information submitted by the facility revealed the information which should have not gone to the paper was information regarding other births for this mother, race of the parents, and information regarding the parents' employment. Only the patient's name and the date of the birth were normally released to the paper. The incident resulted from a human error in sorting the various information prior to placing them in the envelopes and mailing them.

Outcome:

Deficiency cited by the California Department of Public Health: Health & Safety Code 1280

Related Reports:

9 other violations reported on the same date. Note that other citations may be about the same event: 03H411.01, 07JM11.01, 1WHK11.01, V2VO11.01, V2VO11.02, V2VO11.03, V2VO11.04, V2VO11.05, YWLC11.01