Privacy Breaches Confirmed at Campbellford Memorial Hospital

Pete Fisher
3 years ago
• Categories: Editor Choice, Local

Campbellford Memorial Hospital (CMH) has discovered and confirmed recent privacy breaches affecting approximately 500 people. Two employees responsible for inappropriately accessing patient information have been dismissed.

“We are very disappointed that these privacy breaches have occurred,” said Eric Hanna, Interim President and CEO, CMH. “Patients expect us to protect their information and it is very unfortunate that we did not do so in this case. We apologize to everyone whose information was inappropriately accessed.”

CMH is working with the Information and Privacy Commissioner of Ontario and all patients involved in the breaches have been notified by mail. At no point was patient information accessed by anyone outside CMH.

“As healthcare providers, our CMH Team understands that patient privacy is a fundamental principle of delivering good care, and our organization takes the role of protecting personal information very seriously,” said Eric Hanna.

CMH has training and policies in place to support the strict rules around patient confidentiality including that staff and physicians cannot access patient information unless they are currently involved in that patient’s circle of care. This incident has been an opportunity to revisit and strengthen CMH’s patient privacy education and training to help prevent this from happening again. In response, these actions are being taken:

· Enhancing the patient privacy section of CMH’s general orientation training

· Updating the privacy e-learning modules for all staff

· Featuring a focus on privacy at an upcoming Ethics Rounds at CMH that will be led by the regional ethicist

· Developing training about the circle of care and privacy that will be delivered on the units

Additionally, CMH introduced a new electronic record system in December 2021 which gives the hospital increased auditing capabilities and enhances the ability to protect the privacy and confidentiality of patients