Island Health says it has once again uncovered another privacy breach, similar but separate from the two reported on June 14 which involved two Victoria health care workers.
The latest breach involves one Victoria-based employee who viewed records of 34 family, friends and prominent people, all from Vancouver Island, who received services from Island Health.
The health authority said it’s still in the process of notifying affected individuals, and that the Victoria-based employee involved has been fired.
Island Health President & CEO Dr. Brendan Carr expressed his frustration with what he calls “a gross breach of patient, client and public trust.”
“Our employees know it’s wrong to look at the private health information of patients when they have no legitimate reason to do so,” he said.
“It saddens and disappoints me that the actions of a very, very small minority of our 19,000 staff violate the values and high ethical standards we all work towards at Island Health. Our patients deserve better.”
Island Health said it launched an investigation after an audit confirmed an individual used access privileges to view the records of patients with whom there was no care or service relationship. The worker’s access to personal or confidential information was revoked immediately.
Island Health revealed their largest privacy breach in history last month when two non-clinical support staff were fired after they were caught browsing through the files of 198 family, friends and prominent people.
B.C.’s privacy watchdog is investigating both cases.
