Children's patient info stolen from Edmonton hospital

November 13, 2007

CBC News

http://www.cbc.ca/canada/edmonton/story/2007/11/13/glenrose-breach.html



Alberta's privacy commissioner is investigating another security breach involving personal patient information, this time stolen from a pediatrician's office, CBC News has learned.

The doctor at the Glenrose Rehabilitation Hospital had the medical information of 270 children stored on a computer memory stick. She put the tiny device in her purse and locked it in her office drawer, but the purse was stolen on Aug. 16.

"The records we were concerned with were personal health number, name, date of service at Glenrose and diagnosis," confirmed Steve Buick, spokesman for Capital Health. "Not enough clinical detail, but enough that a parent might naturally be concerned."

The news comes one day after the Edmonton Catholic School District revealed a memory stick containing the names, addresses and phone numbers of 560 students had been stolen from a bus carrier employee.

"I was shocked. That kind of stuff that should be locked up shouldn't be going into people's purses," said Rick Klein, whose son was treated at the Glenrose hospital about five years ago. "Who knows who has the information now?"


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