Pair fired after hospital privacy breaches

Two employees have been dismissed after Campbellford Memorial Hospital officials discovered recent privacy breaches affecting about 500 people.

The two employees who were found responsible for inappropriately accessing patient information have been dismissed, the hospital announced Friday.

“We are very disappointed that these privacy breaches have occurred,” said Eric Hanna, CMH’s interim president and chief executive officer. “Patients expect us to protect their information and it is very unfortunate that we did not do so in this case.

“We apologize to everyone whose information was inappropriately accessed.”

All patients involved in the breaches have been notified by mail.

At no point was patient information accessed by anyone outside the hospital.

“As health-care providers, our CMH team understands that patient privacy is a fundamental principle of delivering good care, and our organization takes the role of protecting personal information very seriously,” Hanna said.

The hospital is working with the Information and Privacy Commissioner of Ontario on the investigation.

The hospital said it has training and policies in place to support rules around patient confidentiality, including that staff and physicians cannot access patient information unless they are currently involved in that patient’s circle of care.

“This incident has been an opportunity to revisit and strengthen CMH’s patient privacy education and training to help prevent this from happening again,” states a release from the hospital.

The hospital introduced a new electronic record system in December giving the hospital “increased auditing capabilities” and more ability to protect the privacy and confidentiality of patients, according to the release.