Patient frustrated by Woodstock Hospital privacy breach The Woodstock Sentinel Review

pUnauthorized employee accessed patient records hospital officials confirm in a statementppWoodstock Hospital officials have now released a few details about a reported privacy breach that occurred between January and May of this yearppppThe hospital released a statement on social media late last week and has also sent letters to 56 patients who reportedly had their privacy breachedppppAt Woodstock Hospital we are committed to safeguarding our patients personal health information and take any breach of privacy very seriously hospital officials said in the statementppppIn the statement the hospital confirmed it had identified an employee who was viewing patients health information without a valid workrelated reasonppppThrough our investigation we confirmed that this was indeed the case and this employee no longer works at our organization As per Ontarios Personal Health Information Protection Act we reported it to Ontarios Information and Privacy Commissioner and notified the patients impacted by this incidentppppHospital officials noted in the statement that several measures are in place to protect patient health informationppppThese include monthly audits with both targeted and random checks to ensure compliance with privacy standards Access to patient information is also carefully monitored and controlled based on the specific needs of each staff members role We sincerely apologize to the patients affected by this breach the statement concludedppppWoodstock resident Ryan Purdy one of the 56 people affected by the privacy breach said he questions the hospitals public statement since the person accused of accessing patient records without cause did so while several measures are in place to protect health information The alleged breaches took place some time between January and May of this year something Purdy has trouble understandingppppI dont like that at all They clearly said in their statement they do monthly checks for random and targeted occurrences and mine and the other 55 people would have been a targeted incident So why did they let this person go for five months Purdy askedppppHe did receive a call from the hospitals director of health information and privacy officer Libby GeneralppppAccording to their servers nothing was downloaded but she couldnt guarantee me the person didnt use a phone to take pictures he saidppppPurdy noted he did approach Woodstock police to see if there was potentially a criminal aspect to the incident but unless the hospital initiates an investigation nothing will be done He said as far as he knows that has not occurredppppWhen I talked to the police earlier this week they told me they were surprised no one from the hospital reached out to them Thats exactly what they told me I told them there were 56 of us and they thought that was strange the hospital wouldnt reach out to policeppppHe explained he has been a regular user of the emergency room at the hospital over the past 24 months due to anxiety depression and panic attacksppppWhen I got COVID I got heart palpitations and ever since then when I get them I go to the ER to make sure Im not having a heart attack Is it OK to do that now Is there a relation between the other 55 people Were they looking up people who had the most visits or were they looking at people suffering from mentalhealth issues Is there some kind of similarity between the 56 of us Purdy askedppppPurdy added he is contacting a lawyer who deals with privacy breaches adding General assured him the person who accessed his information was not a member of the emergency department teamppppShe said the person who checked my file wasnt in the department She was on a different floor Purdy saidppppHe said he was offered the name of the former employee but expressed concern for her privacy Purdy said he was told by hospital staff during his last Woodstock emergency room visit that a card needs to be used any time a patients record is accessed that keeps a record of who is looking at that informationppppThats what I am trying to get at he said If they knew this person was doing this over the course of five months why did it take so long to finally do something Even the doctor and crisis worker told me the second they pull up my file it shows who is looking at it The are allowed to because I am in their careppppHe said General told him most of the people targeted were ER patients Purdy said he asked why the hospital wouldnt have noticed the activity since the nowformer employee wasnt in that departmentppppShe said she didnt know what happened She didnt know why it was missed Purdy saidppppThe letter sent to Purdy by General states The employee was not involved in your care and had no workrelated reason to be looking at your personal health information It added that anything outside that is considered inappropriate and is contrary to the hospitals privacy policyppppPurdy also expressed concerns about his health card number potentially being compromisedppppI dont know if my number is out there somewhere People sell them on the black market to maybe an immigrant wanting to come over here who doesnt have health care What if my number gets flagged and my health care gets suspended pending an investigation he saidppppPurdy said hed like to talk to the other 55 people affectedppppThere is strength in numbers he saidppppChelsea Fagan the hospitals communications and public relations officer and Perry Lang president and CEO provided a brief shared response to several questionsppppThank you for your inquiry At this time we do not have any additional comments beyond what has been shared on our official channelsppppThe hospital did not send out a news release but put the statement on their social media channels onlyppppPatrice Hilderley chair of the hospitals board of directors also provided a statementppppThe Woodstock Hospital Board of Trust is aware of the recent privacy incident The hospital has taken all necessary steps to address the situation and the investigation is now being handled by the Information and Privacy Commissioners Office As a result we are unable to provide any further comments at this timeppppWhile Ontarios Information and Privacy Commissioner couldnt comment on the Woodstock Hospital case directly Patricia Kosseim did provide a written statementppppWoodstock Hospital notified our office about this incident on July 15 Given that our investigation is ongoing we cannot provide additional details at this time We cannot speculate on the length of our investigation but would be pleased to follow up with you when there are further developments Kosseim wroteppppShe added the probe will examine the hospitals processesppppWhen we investigate a privacy breach we look to establish whether the breach has been contained whether the appropriate people have been notified and whether corrective action has been taken to address the underlying causes of the breach and reasonable safeguards have been put in place to prevent future breaches she saidppppKosseim added unauthorized access to personal health information or snooping erodes patients trust and confidence in the healthcare systemppppWhether motivated by mischief personal gain or sheer curiosity snooping is unacceptable and can have devastating consequences for patients and healthcare professionals All healthcare providers in Ontario must have the necessary safeguards in place to detect prevent and reduce the risk of unauthorized access to personal health information she wroteppppThe maximum administrative penalty for breaking privacy laws in Ontario is 50000 for individuals and 500000 for organizationsppppOur office takes a proportionate approach depending on the severity of the contravention and will consider a number of factors in determining the appropriate amount of penalty to impose in a given case Kosseim saidppppKosseim added if a persons actions or inactions are serious enough to amount to an offence under the legislation they could be subject to prosecution and fines of up to 200000 for individuals and 1 million for corporations as well as possible imprisonmentppppLee Griffi is a Local Journalism Initiative Reporter with the WilmotTavistockGazette The Local Journalism Initiative is funded by the Government of CanadappppPostmedia is committed to maintaining a lively but civil forum for discussion Please keep comments relevant and respectful Comments may take up to an hour to appear on the site You will receive an email if there is a reply to your comment an update to a thread you follow or if a user you follow comments Visit our Community Guidelines for more informationpp365 Bloor Street East Toronto Ontario M4W 3L4pp 2024 The Woodstock Sentinel Review a division of Postmedia Network Inc All rights reserved Unauthorized distribution transmission or republication strictly prohibitedppThis website uses cookies to personalize your content including ads and allows us to analyze our traffic Read more about cookies here By continuing 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