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.
VA Southeast Network (VISN 7)
Mentioned in a privacy incident report created by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs on January 13, 2011. Also cited in 225 other reports.
Report ID: SPE000000057035, U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs
Reported Entity: VISN 07 Tuscaloosa, AL
Issue:
A Pharmacy envelope with medication mailed to a veteran was returned via USPS(United States Postal Service) opened to the Mail room without its contents. An opened envelope was received by the VA mail clerk via USPS contained all of the printed information sent to the veteran except the prescription bottle and medicine. The prescription label on the bottle included the veterans name, date of birth, and medication name. The package and paperwork in the package contained the veterans name and address. The VA mail clerk states that he received a clear plastic bag containing an opened envelope with a print out of meds for a veteran was returned via USPS. He goes on to state that a note was attached to the clear bag stating the envelope was opened in error by the conveyor belt by USPS. Update: 01/13/11:Veteran will receive a letter offering credit protection services.
Outcome:
TVAMC has communicated with ScriptPro, automatic prescription filling device vendor, with a request to reformat the date of birth on the prescription label and bag label so that it is not identifiable as a date of birth. Staff can be trained to interpret the date but uninformed persons will not recognize the number as a date of birth. This may help if such an event occurs in the future.1) The DOB is no longer on either the batch label or the Rx label as DOB. It is now masked as 679-year-month-day on both. For example, if the DOB is 1/2/1970 it would show up as 67919700102. This will be on BOTH the Rx label and the Batch label.