SUTTER COAST HOSPITAL

Report ID: CF1F11.01, California Department of Public Health

Reported Entity: SUTTER COAST HOSPITAL

Issue:

Based on interview and document review, the facility failed to prevent unauthorized access and disclosure of Patient 43's confidential health information, when the patient's After Visit Summary was given to another patient, who was not involved with the patient's care and not authorized to have the information. This failure allowed for potential unlawful or unauthorized access to protected health information and a violation of the patient's right to privacy.Findings:During an interview on 8/28/14 at 10 a.m., the Privacy Officer stated that the incident occurred when the physician selected the wrong name, when printing the discharge summary for another patient, and it appeared on the documents given to the patient being discharged. The physician failed to recognize that the name on the document was not the name of the patient who was being discharged. The Privacy Officer confirmed the information which was transmitted. Review of documents, provided by the facility, revealed the information which was misdirected included the patient's name, date of birth, medical record number, date of service and medications. This incident occurred due to the failure of the physician to follow protocol to use two identifiers to reconcile the names on all documents prior to transferring the documents to a patient.

Outcome:

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

Related Reports:

13 other violations reported on the same date. Note that other citations may be about the same event: 00CR11.01, 0V7U11.01, 8AEN11.01, 8U9Y11.01, AQZO11.01, H22J11.01, OFPZ11.01, PZN511.01, QSIM11.01, T7EG11.01, XI1S11.01, Y7TP11.01, ZMVG11.01