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Old 02-08-2006, 08:49 AM
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Harrison Harrison is offline
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How very sad for all involved. The depth of incompetence is actually much worse than reported -- they failed to report here that this "problem" went on for 6 months. No wonder many patients fear the future of "cyper records..."
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Patients' Confidential Information Sent To Local Bank

Tue Feb 7, 5:58 PM ET

Brigham and Women's Hospital mistakenly sent patients' confidential medical information to a local bank a number of times, officials said Tuesday.

NewsCenter 5's Shiba Russell reported that the information, including records about patients' sexually transmitted diseases, was faxed to a Boston investment bank by mistake.

The hospital admitted that it made a blunder. The admission surfaced after the investment bank revealed that the hospital mistakenly sent the medical data of about 30 patients to the bank. The information included patients' Social Security numbers and information about STDs.

"When I heard that I was a little shocked. At the same time, I was a little scared, too. That's not right. It's invading a patient's privacy," patient Kiran Reedy said.

The bank's finance manger told the Boston Herald that she called the hospital about 12 times to alert hospital officials about the error, but the faxes kept arriving at the bank. The bank shredded the faxes.

"Brigham and Women's considers this a serious matter and is now conducting its own internal investigation. The hospital has identified the error and taken steps to correct the situation," the hospital said in a statement.

Hospital officials said that they plan to notify any patient whose information was sent to the bank.

The mix-up was admitted just days after the Boston Globe and Worcester Telegram and Gazette newspapers acknowledged accidentally releasing credit card numbers of more than 200,000 subscribers.
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"Harrison" - info (at) adrsupport.org
Fell on my ***winter 2003, Canceled fusion April 6 2004
Reborn June 25th, 2004, L5-S1 ADR Charite in Boston
Founder & moderator of ADRSupport - 2004
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