Alberta Health Services is apologizing following a data breach at Alberta Children's Hospital. The organization said in early October that a staff member at the hospital inappropriately accessed the personal health information of 247 patients.
ASH noticed the breach during an audit of its Netcare patient record system. The staff member had been accessing patient records inappropriately for 14 months. The organization audited a second database, called Clinibase, and found similar breaches by the same individual.
Patient records including contact information, date of birth, names of relatives and patient histories were all available to the staff member concerned, who no longer works with the organization.
“While the incident did not impact patient care, or the integrity of patient records, any breach is inexcusable,” said Vickie Kaminski, ASH's president and CEO, in a statement. “I want to assure Albertans that we take our role as protector of health information very seriously, and will take appropriate action to reduce the chance of this happening again.”
