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.
Northwest Network (VISN 20)
Mentioned in a privacy incident report created by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs on March 12, 2012. Also cited in 208 other reports.
Report ID: SPE000000072757, U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs
Reported Entity: VISN 20 Seattle, WA
Issue:
On 3/8/12 at noon approximately, an employee discovered a book at the USA Paper Dispensing Machine located near the Coffee Cart in the basement of Building 1. The book contains the following VA sensitive information:1.Durable Power of Attorney (2 Veterans), with full identifiersCPRS Treatment Notes (4 Veterans), with full identifiers2.3.Chart Rounds (25 Veterans), with full identifiers4.Employee (possibly student) Evaluation (1), with partial identifiersIn addition, the book itself contain various identifiers of approximately 40 Veterans. The identifiers listed in this log includes mostly last 4, last name and some diagnosis information. Update: 03/19/12:All individuals in lines 1-4 above will be sent offers of credit protection services, as their SSNs were in the documentation. The area where this was found was a high traffic area, and the book was there for an unknown amount of time. The Privacy Officer is still investigating what information was disclosed on the other 40 individuals.04/05/12:After further investigation, the total number of individuals that will be sent credit monitoring is 27. Ten individuals will be sent letters of notification.
Outcome:
PO provided education, training, sent out letters, and retrieval.