Minn. records go to trash rather than shredder
Minneapolis-based Allina Health System is notifying more than 6,100 patients that documents containing their personal information, rather than hitting the shredder, were thrown away in the trash.
Allina is informing all patients treated at the system's Isles Clinic between April 6 and Oct. 27 of last year, when the potential breach was discovered. Despite the organization's belief that the risk of unauthorized use is low, it's offering one year of free credit monitoring and identity protection services to patients potentially affected.
According to an emailed statement from an Allina spokesperson to the Minneapolis Star Tribune, the disposed documents may have included patient birthdates, medical record numbers, addresses, names, clinical information and some Social Security numbers. The clinic said it has retrained staff about secure document disposal procedures and installed containers clearly marked for shredding.
Editor
Editor Beth earned a bachelor’s degree in journalism and master’s in health communication. She has worked in hospital, academic and publishing settings over the past 20 years. Beth joined TriMed in 2005, as editor of CMIO and Clinical Innovation + Technology. When not covering all things related to health IT, she spends time with her husband and three children.