Hospital Revises Email Distribution as a Result of a Disclosure to Persons Without a "Need to Know"
Hospital Revises Email Distribution as a Result of a Disclosure to Persons Without a "Need to Know"
Covered Entity: General Hospital
Issue: Impermissible Use and Disclosure
A complainant, who was both a patient and an employee of the
hospital, alleged that her protected health information (PHI) was
impermissibly disclosed to her supervisor. OCR’s investigation revealed
that: the hospital distributed an Operating Room (OR) schedule to
employees via email; the hospital’s OR schedule contained information
about the complainant’s upcoming surgery. While the Privacy Rule may
permit the disclosure of an OR schedule containing PHI, in this case, a
hospital employee shared the OR scheduled with the complainant’s
supervisor, who was not part of the employee's treatment team, and did
not need the information for payment, health care operations, or other
permissible purposes. The hospital disciplined and retrained the
employee who made the impermissible disclosure. Additionally, in order
to prevent similar incidents, the hospital undertook a complete review
of the distribution of the OR schedule. As a result of this review, the
hospital revised the distribution of the OR schedule, limiting it to
those who have “a need to know.”
| Large Provider Revises Patient Contact Process to Reflect Requests for Confidential Communications Covered Entity: General Hospital Issue: Impermissible Disclosure; Confidential Communications A patient alleged that a general hospital disclosed protected health information when a hospital staff person left a message on the patient’s home phone answering machine, thereby failing to accommodate the patient’s request that communications of PHI be made only through her mobile or work phones. In response, the hospital instituted a number of actions to achieve compliance with the Privacy Rule. To resolve this matter to the satisfaction of OCR, the hospital: retrained an entire Department with ...read more |
| Private Practice Revises Policies and Procedures Addressing Activities Preparatory to Research Covered Entity: Private Practice Issue: Impermissible Disclosure-Research A private practice physician who was the principal investigator of a clinical research study disclosed a list of patients and diagnostic codes to a contract research organization to telephone patients for recruitment purposes. The disclosure was not consistent with documents approved by the Institutional Review Board (IRB). The private practice maintained that the disclosure to the contract research organization was permissible as a review preparatory to research. Activities considered “preparatory to research” include: preparing a research protocol; developing a research hypothesis; ...read more |
| Health Plan Corrects Computer Flaw that Caused Mailing of EOBs to Wrong Persons Covered Entity: Health Plans Issue: Safeguards A national health maintenance organization sent explanation of benefits (EOB) by mail to a complainant's unauthorized family member. OCR's investigation determined that a flaw in the health plan's computer system put the protected health information of approximately 2,000 families at risk of disclosure in violation of the Rule. Among the corrective actions required to resolve this case, OCR required the insurer to correct the flaw in its computer system, review all transactions for a six month period and correct all ...read more |
| Pharmacy Chain Revises Process for Disclosures to Law Enforcement Covered Entity: Pharmacies Issue: Impermissible Uses and Disclosures A chain pharmacy disclosed protected health information to municipal law enforcement officials in a manner that did not conform to the provisions of the Privacy Rule. Among other corrective actions to resolve the specific issues in the case, OCR required this chain to revise its national policy regarding law enforcement's access to patient protected health information to comply with the Privacy Rule requirements, including that disclosures of protected health information to law enforcement only be made in response to written requests from ...read more |
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