There have been several potential privacy incidents reported at the facility in the past week.

As a Privacy Officer.  There have been several potential privacy incidents reported at the facility in the past week. The job is to investigate these incidents to determine if they are genuinely privacy violations.  If violations are identified, specify what must be done according to current law(s). Also, what should be done to mitigate the situation and prevent it from happening again.

Directions:

Step 1) Review each of the incidents 1-10. Type up your responses describing the specific action(s) appropriate to address each of the ten (10) situations. 

Step 2)Determine which ones are privacy violations. Determine who the privacy violation should be reported to and the timing required for the notifications.

Step 3) Do you agree with the actions/consequences of each privacy violation?  As a privacy officer, what outside resources and information do you use to support the consequences for each of the incidents?

CASE 2-20 Investigating Potential Privacy Violations

Identify the specific action(s) appropriate to address each of the following situations:

1. Some alcohol and drug abuse health records were inadvertently left accessible via the Internet. Fifty patients were affected. 

2. A patient overheard a physician telling another patient’s family that cancer had spread to the surrounding lymph nodes. The physician was talking in a low voice in a corner of the hallway.

3. A hacker accessed the lab information system and viewed multiple health records.

4. A single form from a different patient was sent to the requesting patient.

5. A computer was not logged off and a visitor looked up his mother’s PHI.

6. A monitor is turned toward the reception desk so that anyone who walks by can see it.

7. A patient complained that his ex-wife looked at his record and told his girlfriend that he had human immunodeficiency virus (HIV).

8. A patient’s lab test was left lying out on the counter of the staff workroom. Staff were in and out of the room all day.

9. A patient’s radiology report was left lying out on the counter of the nursing unit. Patients and their families walked by this counter and also came to the counter to talk to staff.

10. HIM staff left a health record in the HIM director’s office