ST BERNARDINE MEDICAL CENTER

Report ID: VIVR11.01, California Department of Public Health

Reported Entity: ST BERNARDINE MEDICAL CENTER

Issue:

Based on interview and record review, the facility failed to ensure the confidential treatment of protected health information (PHI) for Patient A, when Patient B received Patient A's PHI upon discharge from the facility, resulting in a breach of Patient A's PHI. FINDINGS:On December 22, 2013, at 10:45 AM, a phone interview was conducted with the facility privacy officer (FPO) to investigate an entity reported incident of a possible breach of PHI for Patient A.On July 30, 2013, a review was conducted of the entity reported incident. The facility investigation was also reviewed which revealed that on October 18, 2012, Employee 1 placed Patient A's ID sticker on the bottom of Patient B ' s Discharge Instruction Sheet, thus giving Patient B, Patient A's PHI. Patient A's PHI which was given to Patient B, an unauthorized, unintended individual, included the following: Patient A's name, age, date of birth, physician ' s name, medical record number, and the encounter number.On August 14, 2013, at 12:40 PM, a phone interview was conducted with the FPO, who confirmed the incident. She could provide no additional information, nor documentation to reflect why this incident had occurred. The facility failed to protect patient rights regarding maintaining the privacy and confidentiality of patient PHI, which resulted in Patient A being placed at risk of identity theft, when discharge instructions containing Patient A were given to Patient B without authorization.

Outcome:

Deficiency cited by the California Department of Public Health: Patients' Rights

Related Reports:

2 other violations reported on the same date. Note that other citations may be about the same event: 0NXD11.01, OZP111.01