VA Healthcare - VISN 4 (VISN 4)

Report ID: SPE000000073317, U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs

Reported Entity: VISN 04 Butler, PA

Issue:

Patient A and Patient B both had appointments at the Mercer Community Based Outpatient Clinic (CBOC) on 03/16/12. Patient A received his lab work from 03/09/12. Patient A was also given lab work from Patient B, who had lab work on 03/13/12. The Alternate Privacy Officer was informed of this today and called Patient A to see what he did with Patient B's lab work. Patient A had shredded Patient B's lab work. It cannot be recovered. Update: 03/26/12:Patient B will be sent a letter offering credit protection services. Patient B's full SSN and lab work were disclosed.NOTE: There were a total of 43 Mis-Handling incidents this reporting period. Because of repetition, the other 42 are not included in this report, but are included in the "Mis-Handling Incidents" count at the end of this report. In all incidents, Veterans will receive a notification letter and/or credit monitoring will be offered if appropriate.

Outcome:

The Privacy Officer will provide a training reminder to CBOC staff on the importance of reviewing all PHI/PII information that is sent out or given to patients or outside providers on the importance of giving out the correct patient information. Review that more than one patients records are not intermingled with each other and the correct patients information is given to that patient. The Privacy Officer will also check to make sure all CBOC employees are up to date with their Privacy/HIPAA training. Anyone that is delinquent or close to their due date will have it completed