Search Privacy Violations, Breaches and Complaints
This database was last updated in December 2015 ago and should only be used as a historical snapshot. More recent data on breaches affecting 500 or more people is available at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Breach Portal.
Altoona - James E. Van Zandt VA Medical Center
Mentioned in a privacy incident report created by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs on January 16, 2015. Also cited in 21 other reports.
Report ID: PSETS0000113984, U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs
Reported Entity: ALTOONA PA - 503
Issue:
A Mail Room Clerk hand carried a large sized manila envelope containing patient personally identifiable information (PII)/protected health information (PHI) that was received back presumably from the USPS to the Privacy Officer (PO). The manila envelope had a label with the name of a resident, full SSN, and DOB where the address label normally would go. There were two red stamped notices on the envelope indicating postage due and another stamp indicated it was "received unsealed". Other markings on the envelope included "Patient D/C'd 01/10/15", and a list of numbers added up with a total of 16.20. Another number of 7 circled was also on the envelope. The return address was James E. Van Zandt Medical Center's address, but did not indicate what service it originated.
Outcome:
01/20/15: The PO has investigated and apparently what happened was the patient went from the Altoona VAMC to the Pittsburgh VAMC. The documents were placed in the outgoing mail at Pittsburgh VAMC by mistake. The USPS returned it tothe Altoona VAMC as undeliverable, since their address was on the documents. Since the documents were only viewed by VA staff and USPS staff during the performance of their official duties, this is not considered a data breach by the Incident Resolution Service Team.