VA Southwest Health Care Network (VISN 18)

Report ID: PSETS0000087374, U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs

Reported Entity: VISN 18 Big Spring, TX

Issue:

While the VA Police were completing rounds, they saw a desk sitting outside of the warehouse that was turned in. The staff member apparently forgot to empty out the desk drawer, which contained 3 papers. The papers were progress notes on 3 patients from several years ago. The paperwork was removed and placed in a folder for the Privacy Officer (PO). Update: 04/01/13: The desk was outside for about 2 and a half hours. The warehouse is a secured area, and the grounds have Police on patrol at all times. The papers were stuck to the top of the drawers and the officer had to pull them out from the drawer. They were from 2005 and 2007, and there were 4 papers. The PO sent an email to the Chief, Police, to see if he can look at the footage for this incident. She will advise when she has heard back from him. The documents were found approximately at 8:20 PM. Usually the last of the workers leave the building between 5:30 and 6:00 PM. The PO thinks that the Police patrol is frequent enough, and the fact that staff members were still around the area until just 2 1/2 hours before the documents were found, that the risk is low. With the change to DST, the sun hasn't completely set at this time. The PO now has the paperwork that was found in her possession. 04/02/13: The progress notes on the three patients included their names, last four digits of the SSN and protected health information (PHI). Three patients will receive HIPAA letters of notification. 04/08/13: One of the papers that was in the desk is from a Veteran's wife. It is a VA Form 10-2633 regarding her fall while visiting her husband on 5th floor. She is not in our system so the Privacy Officer (PO) has no way of getting a hold of her and it does not have her spouse's information at all to pull him up so the POI could find her contact information. There is no way to identify this individual. The PO spoke to one patient and informed him that he would be receiving a letter. The other patient is deceased so his family will receive a next of kin (NOK) letter.

Outcome:

Letters have been sent to the Veteran and the Next of Kin of the Veteran, requesting this ticket to be closed. Privacy Officer spoke with the Chief of Warehouse and they now have a process in place for securing furniture with it is turned into the warehouse to ensure that this does not happen again.