A Jackson Health System worker is accused of thieving about 24,000 patient files over a duration of 5 years. The unit secretary of the hospital has been put on administrative leave till the end of an internal inquiry into the extended HIPAA infringement. The alleged thievery of patient info has also been informed to law enforcement.
Remarkably, the worker has been named but not yet sacked. This indicates that the proof already gathered against the person is considerable.
The worker in doubt is Evelina Reid. She has been hired by Jackson Health since 2005 in the role of a hospital unit secretary for the key operating room in the Miami-Dade public hospital system. An early evaluation of the secrecy infringements shows Reid read 24,188 patient health files over a duration of 5 years without a valid reason for doing this.
Reid is known to have incorrectly accessed as well as seen patient data including names, addresses, dates of birth, as well as Social Security numbers.
South Florida is well renowned for identity thievery and has had more than twice the quantity of identity thievery complaints compared to any other metropolitan area in the motherland. Previous year NerdWallet informed there were 18,000 instances of identity thievery informed in South Florida as compared to 7,500 in Seattle metropolitan area that rated in second place.
As there is a danger that patient data have been utilized incorrectly, all affected persons are offered free credit monitoring services. Affected patients will be communicated by mail in a few days and will be informed of the secrecy infringement.
The news comes only a few days after the declaration of the firing of two of the health system’s employees after they wrongly accessed the health file of NFL football player Jason Pierre Paul.
Carlos Migoya, Jackson Health System CEO mentioned that these are rare cases, with a declaration issued to Miami Dade officers declaring Reid is a “rogue hospital worker.”
Migoya said Jackson Health is presently going through an upgrading of its security arrangements and will be carrying out additional staff HIPAA training on patient secrecy. He knows the damage that these cases can cause patients as well as the adverse effect that secrecy infringements have on public opinion of the health system. He lately said, “We should have a perfect status for valuing the secrecy of our patients as well as their files,” and is eager to make certain that the health system’s status is restored.
The new patient data safety system is presently being developed and once applied will make it easier and faster for Jackson Health to find as well as take action over secrecy violations. The safety system is much required because it took 5 years for Reid’s suspected spree of patient record thievery to be known.
