South Central VA Health Care Network (VISN 16)

Report ID: PSETS0000083871, U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs

Reported Entity: VISN 16 Muskogee, OK

Issue:

Incident Summary: A VA employee of the Muskogee area requested a Sensitive patient Access Record (SPAR) from the Information Security Officer ISO. She requested an investigation for some of the employee names who were reported on the list and not involved in her care on that date due to an episode that had taken place. After the investigation seven employees had viewed her medical record, six of them had viewed the record in the performance of their duty one employee a (social worker) has no reason for why he reviewed the record and state that he has no knowledge of this person and he can't imagine any reason that he would have to go into this employee's record. Update: 12/31/12: A complete investigation has been done, however due to holidays this issue has not been follow up awaiting employee's return from AL. PO and ISO have spoken to employee to inform her of the findings. An unauthorized access of medical records has been sent out to the supervisor of the employee who access the record. 2/15/13: All documents have been received regarding this complaint. Action was taken with the employee who accessed the record outside of performance duty. An additional OCR complaint is being investigated on this complaint. 2/27/13: Employee of Muskogee area requested a SPAR from ISO. She requested an investigation for some of the employee names who were reported on the list and not involved in her care on that date due to an episode that had taken place. After the investigation seven employees had viewed her medical record, six of them had viewed the record in the performance of their duty one employee a (social worker) has no reason for why he reviewed the record and states I have no knowledge of this person and I can't imagine any reason that I would have to go into this employee's record. All employee are being provided mandated additional training regarding unauthorized access to medical records in regards to this issue to prevent future episodes of the same nature. However, the employees that access this record outside of their performance duty has received action that is pending on HR results plus the mandated training.

Outcome:

All employee are being provided mandated additional training regarding unauthorized access to medical records in regards to this issue to prevent future episodes of the same nature. However, the employees that access this record outside of their performance duty has received action that is pending on HR results plus the mandated training.

Related Reports:

1 other violation reported on the same date. Note that other citations may be about the same event: PSETS0000083877