SAN FRANCISCO GENERAL HOSPITAL

Report ID: EI8111.02, California Department of Public Health

Reported Entity: SAN FRANCISCO GENERAL HOSPITAL

Issue:

Based on interview and record review, the hospital failed to report the loss of confidential medical information within five business days of discovering the loss.Findings:During an interview on 12/4/13 at 9:00 AM, the hospital's Privacy Officer (PO) stated that on 10/31/13 she was notified of a theft, from a secured area of the hospital, which included work bags belonging to two Anesthesia residents. The resident (MD 1) assigned to the Trauma patients on that day, had a Patient List in his work bag. The other work bag did not contain any patient information.During the subsequent investigation, it was not until 11/14/13 that the PO was able to determine the exact nature of the medical information contained on the Patient List and the names of the patients on the 10/23/13 List.Review of the reconstructed 10/23/13 List indicated the names of 25 patients and their confidential medical information such as medical history, current diagnoses, medical record number, and laboratory results.The PO stated on 11/14/13 letters of notification were mailed or delivered to the 25 patients whose medical information was contained on the stolen Patient List.The hospital did not notify the California Department of Public Health (CDPH) of this potential medical information breach until a faxed notice was sent at 8:01 PM on 11/18/13 from the hospital to CDPH.The hospital was 18 days late in reporting this breach of confidential medical information to CDPH.

Outcome:

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

Related Reports:

The report containing this deficiency also includes information about 2 other violations. Note that these may be related to the same event: EI8111.01, EI8111.03