Workers fired after viewing patients' records

Patients in Minnesota and Missouri are getting notices in the mail notifying them that healthcare workers inappropriately viewed their patient records. In both cases, the offending employee was fired.

Minneapolis-based Allina Health began sending notices to affected patients on Oct. 25 after learning that one of its certified medical assistants unnecessarily accessed the electronic health records of 3,807 patients across the system.

The unauthorized access occurred between February 2010 and September 2013. The employee viewed demographic information (name, address, telephone number, date of birth), clinical information, health insurance information and the last four digits of Social Security numbers.

There is no evidence that the information has been improperly used, health system officials said. The system has set up a call center to respond to questions or concerns.

In Columbia, Mo., Boone Hospital Center is notifying 126 patients that a staff member from a private physician clinic viewed their records. The employee of Nephrology and Hypertension Associates viewed records containing similar information.

“After we learned of the problem and corrected it, we performed a thorough audit of this person's record access history to determine exactly which records were inappropriately accessed,” Jacob Luecke, media relations manager for Boone Hospital Center, said. Those affected, in addition to being notified of the breach, have been offered free enrollment in a credit monitoring service for one year.

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