VA Health Care Upstate New York (VISN 2)

Report ID: SPE000000062927, U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs

Reported Entity: VISN 02 Syracuse, NY

Issue:

While reviewing daily Sensitive Record Access logs, it was determined that a few employees within the Syracuse VAMC access a deceased patients medical record without the need to know. Update: 05/24/11:The Veteran's Next of Kin will be sent a notification letter.06/21/11:An appeal was filed. The DBCT reviewed and denied the appeal based on the evidence submitted that it was concluded that the accesses were purely of a curiosity nature, however, not necessarily for personal reasons but for an unconfirmed need to know for health care operations (i.e. the VAMC staff accessed the deceased patients medical record without first confirming the patient was treated in their clinic and therefore confirming their need to know to close out appointments, consults, and review for any quality assurance purposes). There was no evidence of any intent for identity theft of this deceased patient. Nevertheless, although not malicious, these actions are still considered access violations and thus privacy and security violations. As a result, disciplinary actions have been initiated on these instances. The DBCT denied the appeal because there should be a process in place for all future appointments, procedures, etc. to be canceled upon the death of a patient without each individual clinic accessing the record and that disciplinary actions were initiated. Therefore credit protection services are still required.

Outcome:

Supevisor have submitted names to HR for disciplinary action in the form of a reprimand.