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Recycled Medical Records Used As Scrap Paper At Elementary School

Posted by samzenpus on from the it's-a-purple-duck-with-shot-records dept.

Parents with students at Hale Elementary School in Minneapolis have found something interesting on the back of their children's pictures hanging on the fridge, detailed medical information. From the article: "Jennifer Kane was tidying her dining room when she found the drawing by her daughter, Keely, who goes to Hale Elementary School. On the back of the paper was the name, birth date and detailed medical information for a 24-year-old St. Paul woman named Paula White. 'The more I read it, the more alarmed I became about the amount of information I had about this person,' said Kane." The security lapse has been blamed on a paralegal donating the paper to the school.

6 of 119 comments (clear)

  1. HIPAA fail by akeeneye · · Score: 5, Interesting

    There's got to be a massive fine coming for this.

    --
    The man who dies rich dies disgraced. -- Andrew Carnegie
    1. Re:HIPAA fail by hairyfeet · · Score: 4, Interesting

      Hell the scary part for me is how many are supposed to be protecting those records don't even follow best practices! My mom was a popular charge nurse at a local hospital so i got to know the IT guy and his crew pretty decently. So a few years back he goes 'Hey you wanna have a ton of machines to strip? Back up the truck" and sure enough he loads 30 or so nice boxes onto my truck. Well i figure I'll get home and find the drives gone but nope, all still there with ALL THE DATA. i thought it was nice he trusted me but more than a little scary too.

      I'm also buddies with the apt super who is also the super at a bunch of office complexes in the area. he called me awhile back and said 'If you want a ton of boxes for parts get over here before the garbage man gets 'em" and sure enough the local teleco he supers for had put a mound of nice late P4s and early duals out for scrap. again when I get home with 'em and check ALL the drives are there and the CC data wasn't even encrypted!

      I used to be amazed at the stories of some megacorp losing tons of data but frankly I just can't be surprised anymore, it seems like nobody bothers to do even basic due diligence. When I was working corp I got permission to give our old machines to a shelter for abused women but before a single box left my shop I had DOD 7 wiped the drive and installed a clean disc image for the shelter with their programs. the thought of just letting a box go straight from the floor to the back of someone's truck, even someone i knew, would have gave me a heart attack!

      --
      ACs don't waste your time replying, your posts are never seen by me.
  2. Re:Hip, Hip, Hipaa! by sribe · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Good going! Would HIPPA be violated, or lawyer client privileged be violated in this case?

    Probably both, ouch...

  3. Re:HIPAA uber-violation by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Yeah, but how else are you going to blame this on public employees? You just know it has to be their fault.

  4. Re:HIPAA uber-violation by supercrisp · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Yep. I'm a public university professor, and I regularly have to make copies on the back of once-used paper because we run out of money for paper. I've also been told I need to buy my own printer if I want access to a printer. I'm also being asked to pay for my own inter-library loan articles. Some of our faculty offices have holes in the wall large enough to stick your hand outside and check the weather. (I can't believe I'm not making that one up. But, yep, just looked out window to verify: Prof. Z's office has a fist-sized hole all the way thru the wall; the boards have just rotted away.) Money is getting tight. Unless it's for a new football stadium, which I can see from my window is coming along nicely. (Note to parents: DO NOT LET YOUR CHILDREN GET A GRADUATE DEGREE IN HISTORY, ENGLISH, GEOGRAPHY, OR ANY OF THE HUMANITIES!)

  5. Re:HIPAA uber-violation by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Interesting

    A) If anyone violated HIPAA, it's the law office, not the school. And whether or not they're in violation of HIPAA specifically depends on how they came upon those records.
    B) The paralegal who donated the paper almost certainly will end up losing her job over this. Fortunately for you, we live in a society where people lose their jobs over honest mistakes, since something has to satisfy your misguided rage over something that had no effect on you whatsoever.
    C) TFA says this was an afterschool program. I don't know how your school worked, but at my school they didn't have a staff of people to inspect every material used by every afterschool program.