Patient Data Landed Online After a Series of Missteps

http://ow.ly/6PesR

An article published on the New York Times by Kevin Sack.

The article discusses a serious breach of healthcare information.

The author explains the steps that took place regarding this data breach, "Private medical data for nearly 20,000 emergency room patients at California's prestigious Stanford Hospital were exposed to public view for nearly a year because a billing contractor's marketing agent sent the electronic spreadsheet to a job prospect as part of a skills test, the hospital and contractors confirmed this week. The applicant then sought help by unwittingly posting the confidential data on a tutoring Web site.

In an e-mail sent to a victim of the breach, the billing contractor, Joe Anthony Reyna, president of Multi-Specialty Collection Services in Los Angeles, explained that his marketing vendor, Frank Corcino, had received the data directly from Stanford Hospital, converted it to a new spreadsheet and then forwarded it to a woman he was considering for a short-term job."

The article provides information regarding another recent serious breach, "Breaches of private medical data have become distressingly commonplace, with two substantial ones disclosed in the last week alone.

In Orlando, officials with Florida Hospital reported that three employees had improperly combed through emergency department records of 2,252 patients, apparently to forward information about accident victims to lawyers. The employees were fired, and law enforcement officials are investigating."