May 24, 2019

TriHealth Confirms Some Patient Medical Data Shared

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May 24, 2019

TriHealth has recently confirmed that patient data was shared with a student mentee on June 8, 2018 and June 9, 2018 under the leadership of a former TriHealth physician, who was examining patient information for a possible research project. The student mentee was not a TriHealth approved workforce member and, therefore, was not authorized to view the data.

Information shared with the student mentee included first and last names of patients, dates of birth, zip codes, ethnicity, life status (deceased or alive) and cancer diagnosis information. TriHealth is sending letters to inform the 2,433 patients affected by the disclosure.

Social Security numbers, addresses, insurance and financial information were NOT shared. TriHealth is not aware of any further access, disclosure, or use of the affected patients’ medical information. TriHealth recommends that healthcare consumers read their insurance statements and bills to ensure accuracy.

TriHealth takes its patients’ Privacy seriously. TriHealth Compliance Program investigates Privacy concerns by interviewing involved parties and auditing logged access into its electronic medical records. TriHealth Team Members are educated to Privacy policies when they are hired and provided with annual re-education. Employees are held accountable to TriHealth policies and violation results in corrective action, up to and including discharge from employment. This process was followed for the above matter.