Posts Tagged ‘patient information’

TV Ratings Should Not Trump Patient Privacy

Saturday, January 3rd, 2015

Yesterday I read a news story about how a woman, Mrs. Anita Chanko, saw an episode of the Dr. Oz show “NY Med” that included video of her husband, who had died 16 months earlier, in the hospital receiving care after being hit by a truck while crossing the street. She did not know that such a video even existed.

The picture was blurred, but the woman knew it was her recently deceased husband because she recognized his voice when he spoke, the conversation topic, the hospital where the care was occurring, along with other visual indicators. She heard her husband ask about his wife; her. She then watched his last moments of life, and then his death on television. (more…)

This is Protected Health Information

Thursday, December 18th, 2014

Once or twice a week I get a question from an organization that is considered to be a healthcare covered entity (CE) or business associate (BA) under HIPAA (a U.S. regulation) asking about the types of information that is considered to be protected health information (PHI). Last week a medical devices manufacturer, that is also a BA, asked about this. I think it is a good time to post about this topic again.

If information can be (more…)

10 Risk-Reducing Actions for Mobile HIPAA/HITECH Compliance

Sunday, June 19th, 2011

I’m giving a free webinar sponsored by Sophos this coming Wednesday, June 22: “10 Risk-Reducing Actions for Mobile HIPAA/HITECH Compliance.”   Here is more information about it: (more…)

Physician Learns A Hard PHI Lesson

Tuesday, April 19th, 2011

News broke  yesterday about a physician in Rhode Island, at the Westerly Hospital, who was sanctioned for posting protected health information (PHI) on her Facebook page: (more…)

Health Net Incident Impacting 1.9 Million: Lessons Learned

Wednesday, April 6th, 2011

Yesterday I provided some thoughts to Howard Anderson at HealthinfoSecurity.com about the recent Health Net incident for his article Here are some expanded thoughts for his questions…

(more…)

HIPAA Violations: Nurses Allegedly Post X-Ray Photos To Facebook

Thursday, February 26th, 2009

Okay, here’s a perfect real incident to use for a case study to argue discuss whether or not this is a HIPAA violation!

(more…)