Orlando Health breach impacts 3,200

Another health system is notifying patients after an employee inappropriately accessed protected health information.

Orlando Health learned that a nursing assistant accessed patients' electronic records, which may have included patient names, birth dates, addresses, medications, medical tests and results, other clinical information and the last four digits of Social Security numbers. Additionally, the employee may have accessed insurance information for "a limited number" of patients, according to the health system.

The health system learned of the inappropriate access to information during a May 27 routine patient record access audit, according to a notice posted on its website.

According to an Orlando Sentinel report, the data breach affects 3,200 patients. The breach only affects certain patients treated from January 2014 to May 2015 at Winnie Palmer Hospital for Women & Babies, Dr. P. Phillips Hospital and a "limited number" of patients at Orlando Regional Medical Center.

The employee has been fired.

The health system said there is no evidence the information has been used or removed from the hospital, and is re-educating its workforce and increasing our already vigilant program of auditing and monitoring of patient record access.

Beth Walsh,

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.

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