VA New England Healthcare System (VISN 1)

Report ID: SPE000000075415, U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs

Reported Entity: VISN 01 Boston, MA

Issue:

After breaking up, the ex-boyfriend of a VA employee went through boxes and found stickers with patient information on them. The stickers contained patients' names, full SSNs and dates of birth. Before he realized he should turn them in, he threw out an unknown number of stickers. He turned in 11 stickers to the VA Police. VA Police initiated a Uniform Offense Report and informed OIG of the incident. Update: 05/14/12: VA Police suspect that these were stolen by the employee and intended to be used for ID theft. The employee in question has been out of work due to a car accident. OIG is attempting to contact the witness. The Privacy Officer (PO) was informed that the information provided to VA Police came from the Boston Police Department. The PO has requested from Human Resources the date the employee was hired to determine the timeframe of alleged ID theft. 05/16/12: The PO is awaiting guidance on how to proceed. The VA Police report that OIG is investigating. 05/21/12: OIG is working on this. The Special Agent will update the PO when their investigation is complete. 06/05/12: The OIG has agreed that notification to 11 Veterans who are involved in this would not impede the investigation. Ten will be offered credit protection services, and since one is deceased, their next-of-kin will be notified.

Outcome:

PO sent credit notification letters to 10 Veterans. One veteran is recently deceased; NOK notification letter sent by PO to NOK on record. OIG and VA Police working on this case.

Related Reports:

1 other violation reported on the same date. Note that other citations may be about the same event: SPE000000075411