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.
VA New England Healthcare System (VISN 1)
Mentioned in a privacy incident report created by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs on January 27, 2012. Also cited in 204 other reports.
Report ID: SPE000000071127, U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs
Reported Entity: VISN 01 Providence, RI
Issue:
Veteran A requested his archived medical records. The records were copied and sent to Veteran A. When Veteran A reviewed them he realized he had Veteran B's documents in his records. He came back to the Release of Information (ROI) supervisor who contacted the Records manager and the Privacy Officer (PO). The records included Veteran B's name, address, full SSN, date of birth and protected health information (PHI) Update: 01/27/12:Veteran B will receive a letter offering credit protection services.01/30/12:Seven other Veterans' information was found in the medical record. Five were deceased. One had the full SSN disclosed and one had the date of birth disclosed. Two veterans will receive letters offering credit protection services and the families of the deceased Veterans will receive next of kin notifications.
Outcome:
Educated ROI clerks that when pulling hard copy files from the Archives we need to be more diligent in reviewing documents prior to making a release.Documents that were found in this Veterans record is being refilled in the correct Archived Records.