VA Health Care Upstate New York (VISN 2)

Report ID: SPE000000069498, U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs

Reported Entity: VISN 02 Syracuse, NY

Issue:

The Chief of Dental Service reported to the Privacy Officer (PO) that there were 2 occasions where Dental staff inappropriately disclosed patient information in the past week due to failure to observe auditory privacy practices. Specifically, on one occasion, a Dental Hygienist divulged a Veteran's name and chief complaint to the Dental Chief in the exam room where it could be overheard by another patient. Upon recognizing this as a privacy issue, the Dental Chief requested that the hygienist meet him outside the room to further discuss the other Veteran's issues in private. The Chief of Dental also verbally counseled the employee on the inappropriateness of discussing the Veteran's medical condition in front of the patient in his exam room. The hygienist recognized it as a privacy violation and confirmed understanding of auditory privacy requirements. On the second occasion, a Dental Assistant, at the request of the same hygienist who was just verbally counseled regarding auditory privacy requirements, proceeded to call patients regarding their upcoming dental appointments in the hygienist's exam room while she was treating other patients. The hygienist and dental assistant were verbally counseled regarding this practice being an auditory privacy violation and it was immediately stopped. The Chief of Dental will be discussing this further with Human Resources to apply further corrective action with these employees as necessary. Update: 12/09/11: The two patients will receive a letter of notification. 01/11/12: An appeal was filed. The DBCT reviewed and granted the appeal based on the following evidence submitted. In regards to the issue with the Dental Assistant making patient appointment reminder phone calls while in the Hygienist's exam room with another patient present, after further review it was identfied by the Chief of Dental that the Dental Assistant only had attempted to call one patient while in the room without success as the patient did not answer the phone and therefore no personally identifiable information (PII) or protected health information (PHI) was wrongfully disclosed. The Po requested that no notification letters be sent for this, changing the ticket to only require one notification letter be sent to the Veteran whose information was inappropriately disclosed by the Dental Hygienist to the Chief of Dental while conducting an exam. Therefore only one patient will receive a letter of notification.

Outcome:

Chief of Dental provided verbal counseling to Dental Hygienist and Dental Assistant on required auditory privacy practices.