Beckley VA Medical Center

Report ID: PSETS0000101388, U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs

Reported Entity: BECKLEY WV - 517

Issue:

On 3/6/14 a male employee sent the Privacy Officer (PO) an e-mail wanting to see if his wife who is also a VA employee had accessed his employee medical record. They are currently in a divorce proceeding. On 3/7/14 PO ran a report to see if male employee's soon to be ex-wife (also an employee) had accessed his employee medical record. Female employee accessed her husband's employee medical record on 1/13/14 at 1:36 p.m. On 3/7/14 PO prepared a letter to male employee and enclosed the report that was run and sent to male employee via encrypted e-mail on 3/7/14. On 3/7/14 at 7:10 p.m., the male employee e-mailed PO that he wants to file a complaint that his privacy was breached by his wife. PO didn't open this e-mail until 3/9/14 at 1:26 p.m. and PO responded back to male employee via e-mail on 3/9/14 at 1:26 p.m. that she would start the process. On 3/9/14 PO in the afternoon, the Privacy Officer tried twice to enter this privacy ticket into PSETS and was unable to submit ticket. PO could input all information but when went to submit ticket it would not complete the process. On 3/10/14 at 8:25 a.m. PO returned the male employee's phone call message that he left for PO at 8:14 a.m. same morning. The male employee wants to file the complaint but asked that PO hold off until he talks to his attorney. He'll be seeing his attorney tomorrow because they have a temporary divorce hearing scheduled. Male employee said that sometime in January female employee asked male employee for his SSN and he said he would not give it to her. All she said is that she needed it. A few days after that female employee told male employee that she got his SSN from work from HR. Male employee called HR and they said no. Female employee accessed his employee medical chart on 1/13/14 and on 1/13/14 male employee said was the day that she secured an apartment. Male employee is concerned that she's used his SSN for credit check for the apartment and he's concerned that female employee might be opening up credit cards under his SSN. He is unsure, however, he is checking into these matters. Male employee said he'd probably call the PO back sometime tomorrow evening to let them know when to proceed about contacting the female employee's supervisor. Male employee asked the PO to wait so he could discuss this with his attorney. PO informed male employee that she still had to input privacy ticket and that PO tried twice yesterday to do so and glitch in system because unable to submit. PO said that she would input privacy ticket this morning which is 3/10/14.

Outcome:

03/10/14: The Incident Resolution Team has determined that Veteran A will be sent a notification letter.