Health Minister Nicola Roxon has lashed out at privacy and civil liberties people, calling them “obsessive” about the risk of private health records of Australians being mislaid, stolen or inadvertently posted online for anyone to access. However, the advocates can point to real-life examples of health record systems gone pear-shaped, including another major stuff-up involving 20,000 patients at a prestigious US hospital revealed this week.
Minister Roxon plays fast and loose
with your private health records
Privacy and civil liberties advocates in Australia are pressing Health Minister Nicola Roxon to put in place better safeguards against incompetent loss of patient health records or data stealing…but she is resisting, even describing the advocates as “obsessive” about risk.http://tiny.cc/jo1qu
But every day, somewhere in the world, the advocates’ concerns are proven right, and the Minister’s irresponsibility towards properly protecting the personal and private health data of Australians is amply demonstrated in real-life cases.
For example, on 5 October 2011 it was revealed that private medical data for nearly 20,000 emergency room patients at California’s prestigious Stanford Hospital were exposed to public view for nearly a year because a billing contractor’s marketing agent sent the electronic spreadsheet to a job prospect as part of a skills test.
The hospital and contractors have confirmed the mistake.
The applicant then sought help by unwittingly posting the confidential data on a tutoring web site, so it became publicly available.
Reporting the Stanford release of private health records, the New York Times said that “breaches of private medical data have become distressingly commonplace, with two substantial ones disclosed in the last week alone.”
“In Orlando, officials with Florida Hospital reported that three employees had improperly combed through emergency department records of 2252 patients, apparently to forward information about accident victims to lawyers. The employees were fired, and law enforcement officials are investigating.
“Meanwhile, Science Applications International Corporation disclosed that computer backup tapes containing medical data for 4.9 million military patients had been stolen from an employee’s car in San Antonio. The data included Social Security numbers, clinical notes, laboratory test results and prescriptions. The company said the risk of harm was low because retrieving data from the tapes would require specialized knowledge, software and hardware.” http://tiny.cc/pa2xq
The same types of disasters will happen in Australia if Minister Roxon continues to ignore the clear warnings she is being given, CLA CEO Bill Rowlings says.
“It is a pity Ms Roxon is not ‘obsessive’ about looking after the private health information of the people of Australia…they are the people on whose behalf she is supposedly working.”