Ex-worker breached privacy, AHS says

A former employee of Alberta Hospital Edmonton inappropriately accessed the records of more than 1,300 patients, Alberta Health Services announced Monday in what is believed to be the province’s largest deliberate breach of health information.

“In terms of a unique individual inappropriately accessing health care records, it is not within the scope of something we have seen before,” Dr. Francois Belanger, AHS’s interim vice-president of quality and chief medical officer, said Monday.

The violations of the Netcare electronic health information system occurred over more than 11 years from January 2004 to July 2015, stopping only when the health authority received a tip from the employee’s co-worker.

The tip triggered a lengthy audit of the employee’s use of Netcare, which was complicated by the fact that the employee’s job required him or her to frequently look up patient records. Investigators had to separate legitimate use of the system from instances of improper access, Belanger said.

In the end, AHS determined 1,309 Albertans had their health information breached, all of whom are due to receive a letter in the mail this week notifying them of the violation. AHS is also sending letters to 11,539 others whose basic demographic information — name, date of birth, address and health number — was exposed to the employee. Belanger said AHS has determined none of the accessed records was altered or printed.

“And we don’t believe the information was sent to anybody. We think this individual acted on the basis of personal curiosity,” he said.