I’m absolutely astonished when I come across news items citing the breach of patient confidentiality because patient records were faxed or mailed to the wrong place, or simply dumped in the garbage.
According to a PI Newswire post fromJune 3rd 2010, a county worker at the Department of Motor Vehicles in Cheektowaga, NY was tossing garbage into the dumpster an
d spotted boxes of files that just didn’t belong there. It turns out the records belonged to a now closed eating disorder clinic and contained everything from names and social security numbers to diagnoses, medications and treatment plans.
And on June 28 a report by fiercehealthcare.com says that the California Department of Public Health (CDPH) found that Children's Hospital of Orange County sent patient records to an auto shop in 2009. The business received six faxes containing healthcare information, including information that identified the patient's name, date of birth, and details about the visits.
In another breach of patient privacy by the same hospital, patient records were faxed to the wrong doctor, because the name of the patient's ER doctor was not correctly entered into the system.
Faxing is yesterday’s technology. With the availability of EMRs, EHRs, PHRs, secure email and encryption healthcare organizations should be able to virtually eliminate these types of errors and ensure their patients’ privacy.
Oh yes, for the dumping of confidential paper records there is a simple technology that works: shredd
ing!
