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.”
| Issued by: Office for Civil Rights (OCR) Do the HIPAA Rules allow a covered entity or business associate to use a CSP that stores ePHI on servers outside of the United States? Answer: Yes, provided the covered entity (or business associate) enters into a business associate agreement (BAA) with the CSP and otherwise complies with the applicable requirements of the HIPAA Rules. However, while the HIPAA Rules do not include requirements specific to protection of electronic protected health information (ePHI) processed or stored by a CSP or any other business associate outside of the United States, OCR notes that ...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 |
| Hospital Implements New Minimum Necessary Polices for Telephone Messages Covered Entity: General Hospital Issue: Minimum Necessary; Confidential Communications A hospital employee did not observe minimum necessary requirements when she left a telephone message with the daughter of a patient that detailed both her medical condition and treatment plan. An OCR investigation also indicated that the confidential communications requirements were not followed, as the employee left the message at the patient’s home telephone number, despite the patient’s instructions to contact her through her work number. To resolve the issues in this case, the hospital developed and implemented several new procedures. ...read more |
| Public Hospital Corrects Impermissible Disclosure of PHI in Response to a Subpoena Covered Entity: General Hospital Issue: Impermissible Uses and Disclosures A public hospital, in response to a subpoena (not accompanied by a court order), impermissibly disclosed the protected health information (PHI) of one of its patients. Contrary to the Privacy Rule protections for information sought for administrative or judicial proceedings, the hospital failed to determine that reasonable efforts had been made to insure that the individual whose PHI was being sought received notice of the request and/or failed to receive satisfactory assurance that the party seeking the information ...read more |
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