VA New England Healthcare System (VISN 1)

Report ID: PSETS0000081529, U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs

Reported Entity: VISN 01 Boston, MA

Issue:

Veteran A had an appointment yesterday and upon checking out was handed paperwork. When Veteran A arrived home he looked at the paperwork and realized there were documents for Veteran B and Veteran C in the package. Veteran A returned the documents to clinic within 24 hours. The documents contained Veteran B's and Veteran C's name, address, full SSN, DOB, and diagnosis. Update: 10/24/12:Veteran B and C will be sent a letter offering credit protection services.NOTE: There were a total of 58 Mis-Handling incidents this reporting period. Because of repetition, the other 57 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 (PO), along with Service Manager, could not identify the responsible employee. It was reported that the Veteran who received the paperwork may have picked it up off of a desk since the Veteran was walking into a restricted area where one employee was on the phone at the time. Due to the inability to identify one responsible employee, all employees in the area are re-completing VA Privacy and Security Awareness Training. The Manager is changing the process to assure no Veterans will have the ability to access the restricted area. All employees have been counseled and the Associate Director of the area has been notified.

Related Reports:

1 other violation reported on the same date. Note that other citations may be about the same event: PSETS0000081547