Sierra Pacific Network (VISN 21)

Report ID: SPE000000067797, U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs

Reported Entity: VISN 21 Reno, NV

Issue:

A cardboard box that morgue staff apparently use to hold documents for shredding until they can take the documents to a Shred It bin disappeared from the morgue area over the weekend. According to the morgue staff some of the documents contained protected health information (PHI). Morgue staff assumed the housekeeper disposed of it as ordinary trash. The VA Police are investigating. The Infromation Security Officer (ISO) spoke to the employee who reported the missing documents to the VA Police and she believes that this happened over the night of 10/13/11. Update: 10/19/11:It is believed that the documents were surgical orders on approximately 10 patients and that housekeeping disposed of them in the regular trash. The regular trash is compacted and sent to a landfill. It is unknown if they can be recreated. The morgue staff will be given further guidance by the ISO and Privacy Officer (PO).10/24/11:The PO was able to recreate the list of surgical patients. There were six individuals identified. None were deceased. The documents contained the patients' name, date of birth, full SSN and surgical orders. The six patients will be offered credit protection services.

Outcome:

The PO and ISO met with the morgue staff and the following corrective action were taken:The temporary shred box has been removed. It was suggested that the staff get a locking cabinet to retain any PHI for future use. Talked with the staff about the importance of protecting PHI. Privacy Officer re created surgery list for clinic, was able to identify six Veterans. sent out six letters with Promo Codes.