Posted on 08/13/2010 8:28:50 AM PDT by KentTrappedInLiberalSeattle
Four Massachusetts community hospitals are investigating how thousands of patient health records, some containing Social Security numbers and sensitive medical diagnoses, ended up in a pile at a public dump.
The unshredded records included pathology reports with patients’ names, addresses, and results of breast, bone, and skin cancer tests, as well as the results of lab work following miscarriages.
By law, medical records and documents containing personal identifying information must be disposed of in a way that protects privacy, and leaving them at a dump is probably illegal, privacy lawyers and hospital officials said. Violators face steep fines.
A Globe photographer discovered the records July 26 when he was dumping his trash at the Georgetown Transfer Station. When he got out of his car, he said, he saw a huge pile of paper about 20 feet wide by 20 feet long. Upset that the paper wasn’t being recycled, he looked more closely.
The photographer said he saw health and insurance records from at least four hospitals and their pathology groups — Milford, Holyoke, Carney, and Milton — mostly dated 2009. The Globe notified the hospitals. It is unclear how many other hospitals’ records might have been discarded in the dump.
(Excerpt) Read more at boston.com ...
It takes a village to get a health care record dump.
Absolutely stunning haircut, though.
Did you see Mr. Romney dump these papers?
Multiply this incompetence by 50 and you’ll have ObamaCare.
Romneycare, the role model for Obamacare...
This is going to result in people calling for MORE Gov oversight and control, not less.
Shoot me now.
Typical willard fail... communism on parade.
LLS
It’s interesting that the guy was most concerned that so much paper wasn’t being recycled. He wasn’t really concerned that they were sensitive medical records, at least at first. So he was being a good liberal, outraged that someone didn’t recycle properly.
No need, you're doing fine by yourself.
That is the best one yet.
Nobody will be fired, nobody will be disciplined.....because they are all protected SEIU employees!
Don't "do" coy, and no patience whatsoever for cryptic. Pass.
OK, I’ll bite. What does this have to do with RomneyCare?
It has nothing to do with Romney, though.
Besides which, they will have everyone on electronic medical records, which can be accessed by anyone working anywhere in the medical field. Confidential, doncha know?
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