Search Privacy Violations, Breaches and Complaints
This database was last updated in December 2015 ago and should only be used as a historical snapshot. More recent data on breaches affecting 500 or more people is available at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Breach Portal.
VA New England Healthcare System (VISN 1)
Mentioned in a privacy incident report created by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs on January 18, 2012. Also cited in 204 other reports.
Report ID: SPE000000070775, U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs
Reported Entity: VISN 01 Bedford, MA
Issue:
VA Credentialing staff noticed on January 18th, that a box containing approximately 5 credentialing files that were supposed to go into the secure shredding bin was empty. Update: 01/20/12:It is believed that the files were thrown out with the regular trash.02/08/12:It was later discovered that six folders were discarded, not five.
Outcome:
Notification letters sent to 6 employees. Possible contributing factors to this incident included: a) a new Housekeeping employee was assigned to the area and may have unintentionally emptied the box into the regular trash; b) Credentialing staff mistakenly believed that the locked office was not accessed by Housekeeping at night. Credentialing staff were using a box to store employee documents, which was left on the floor that evening. The Credentialing Office staff is up-to-date on their Privacy and Information Security training. All boxes used to store paper have been removed and documents with sensitive employee information are appropriately secured at the end of the day. Credentialing staff identified the 6 employees whose files were inappropriately disposed of and they will receive notification letters with credit monitoring information this week.