SUTTER COAST HOSPITAL

Report ID: 6Q7T11.01, California Department of Public Health

Reported Entity: SUTTER COAST HOSPITAL

Issue:

Based on interview, clinical record and administrative document review, the hospital failed to keep personal health information confidential when Patient 16's personal information was inadvertently faxed to a facility, not involved in the patient's care and not authorized to have this information, instead of the patient's referring physician. This failure resulted in a breach of confidentiality and possible unauthorized use of the information.Findings:In an interview, on 12/20/12 at 10:30 a.m., the Privacy Officer stated that on 9/11/12 personal and medical information for Patient 16 was was inadvertently faxed to an outside agency not involved in this patient's care. He stated that he first became aware of the breach of confidentiality on 9/12/12 and informed the Department on 9/17/12. The error occurred when records for this patient were combined with records being sent to another hospital. He confirmed the information which was sent. Review of administrative documents revealed that the information transmitted included the patient's name, medical record number, date of birth and medical information including diagnosis, operative note and pathology report. The incident occurred as a result of human error when the employee failed to verify the correctness of names on the documents prior to transmitting the fax.

Outcome:

Deficiency cited by the California Department of Public Health: Health & Safety Code 1280

Related Reports:

15 other violations reported on the same date. Note that other citations may be about the same event: 02WQ11.01, 0MP211.01, 6JR911.01, 9ITP11.01, BS4A11.01, CNNJ11.01, DIP511.01, G7V411.01, HX4711.01, IDNS11.01, ITB911.01, NITG11.01, RNTD11.01, UW5511.01, Z2G411.01