The personal health information of about 360 patients was accessed by an unauthorized Health Sciences Centre employee beginning last summer, Shared Health says.
The breaches happened between August and March. The clinical staff member is no longer employed by Shared Health.
Manitoba’s ombudsman has been informed, Shared Health said in a news release Friday.
Every Shared Health employee is required to complete mandatory training on appropriate use of personal health information and must sign a pledge to observe their obligations under the Personal Health Information Act and policies on appropriate use of confidential data systems, Shared Health said. The training is repeated every three years, Shared Health said, adding employees are subject to routine audits of their activity in the health record systems they have access to.
“Shared Health takes the safety and security of patients’ personal information very seriously, with a number of protocols in place to detect inappropriate access of private patient information. It is deeply regrettable that patient privacy was breached,” Christina Von Schindler, Shared Health’s chief privacy officer, said in the release.
“In this case, the protocols were effective, with the snooping detected, investigated, and the individual responsible held accountable for their actions.”
fpcity@freepress.mb.ca