Privacy breach disclosed at The Ottawa Hospital
August 8, 2018
OTTAWA - The Ottawa Hospital discovered that the records of 30 patients were improperly accessed in 2018. The breach was discovered during a routine privacy check earlier this year.
Among those patients are members of the family of late Ottawa philanthropist and businessman Peter Foustanellas, for whom an endocrine and diabetes centre at the hospital and an auditorium at the University of Ottawa Heart Institute are named.
Read More
HALIFAX – Nova Scotia’s privacy commissioner says she’s shocked by how a grocery-store pharmacist was able to snoop into the electronic personal health information of dozens of people she knew.
Privacy commissioner Catherine Tully warns the breach is indicative of a wider national problem – and demonstrates the “real and present danger” of intrusion into patients’ private lives. “This is a pharmacist, a professional with ethical obligations,” Tully told the Canadian Press.
EDMONTON – A registered nurse in Fox Creek, located 259 km northwest of Edmonton, has been fined $3,000 after pleading guilty to accessing health information of two people over three years, says Alberta Health Services.
Jasmine Badger, a nurse at the Fox Creek Healthcare Centre, pleaded guilty to accessing health information in contravention of the Health Information Act (HIA) and received a $3,000 fine, plus a victim fine surcharge of 30 percent of the imposed fine, said AHS in a news release.
TORONTO – Thieves who obtained the detailed medical histories and contact information of possibly tens of thousands of home-care patients in Ontario are demanding a ransom from CarePartners, the organization from which the data was taken.
CBC News says it was contacted by the thieves and sent a sample of the data that was allegedly accessed.
OTTAWA – A laptop stolen from a locked vehicle in Ottawa contained healthcare information about more than 33,000 N.W.T. residents, according to the territory’s health department.
The laptop held data on patients and their health histories. It was stolen on May 9, CBC News reported.
KITCHENER, Ont. – CarePartners, a home care service provider to Ontario’s Local Health Integration Networks (LHINs) and an Ontario-based community healthcare agency, disclosed through a news release that it “has become the victim of a cyber-attack by sophisticated actors.”
REGINA – The Saskatchewan Information and Privacy Commissioner is recommending that the Saskatchewan Health Authority fire an employee who improperly accessed the private information of 880 people in the Estevan area.
WINNIPEG – Officials at the Winnipeg Regional Health Authority say an extensive audit was conducted and found more than 1,600 patients were affected by a data breach at Grace Hospital.
VICTORIA – A former nurse at the Vancouver Island Health Authority has been suspended for 30 days by the College of Registered Nurses of B.C. over breach of privacy after she improperly accessed medical records of 74 people.
EDMONTON – A pharmacist in Edmonton, who wrongfully accessed the private health information of more than 100 patients while employed by Covenant Health, has been sentenced to three months of house arrest.