VA Southwest Health Care Network (VISN 18)

Report ID: PSETS0000081665, U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs

Reported Entity: VISN 18 El Paso, TX

Issue:

A Veteran (A) returned a box with a portion of another Veteran's (B) photocopied medical record information. The package was mailed via UPS from Medical Records Section per return address noted. The reporting Veteran's information was mixed in with another Veteran's information and mistakenly all mailed to him at his home address. The Veteran reporting the incident was very concerned about mishandling; immediately returned UPS delivery box and all photocopied information which was not his - to the Las Cruces CBOC (LC-CBOC)Nurse Manager. The Veteran requested an investigation be done and that facility be aware of this error so that it gets corrected. Update: 10/29/12: Veteran B will be sent a letter offering credit protection services, as his full SSN and other information were disclosed.

Outcome:

Update 11/16/2012: Verification of fact-finding, remediation, and corrective action received from responsible Manager in Medical Records-Release of Information area noting that conducted fact finding on this case 11/13/2012 and found that the records were boxed wrong. During the last two months Release of Information Section was down two essential members of the Release of information staff. This caused scanners and work studies to assist in mailing release of information requests in order to keep up with large workload. After research ing the privacy breach, it was determined that one of the work studies boxed the information wrong while helping with this ongoing, very large workload and had helped to process and send out over 18 large packages of mail that day. As per a corrective action, this responsible work study employee has been counseled and re-trained to make sure that all mailed items are reviewed thoroughly before mailing them out. Responsible Manager also documented that all staff in the Medical Records/Centralized Records Unit who help with processing Release of Information requests, have also been re-trained and oversight of heightened awareness and monitoring in place to make sure that they are looking through and verifying correct name on all printed items daily to ensure that the proper information is going to the proper Veteran. Additionally, the Supervisor-Manager also mailed the proper section to the correct Veteran personally. Letter offering credit monitoring prepared for Director's signature and mail-out - to provide explanation to affected Veteran and offer apology. Separate letter of thanks to reporting Veteran also being provided. Recommend ticket closure based on above documentation of corrective action and offer of credit monitoring to be uploaded.