Patient Privacy
VA Health Records Protocols Probed, Following Sexual Harassment Reports by Jessica Davis via Health IT Security.
We value patient privacy in this family - in fact, I plan to make a career of it.
Digital security of records is super important so situations like the following can be hopefully avoided but moreover properly detected and handled (fire this jerk):
Driving the investigation is a 2020 VA Office of Inspector General report that found a woman veteran was subjected to retaliation after reporting she was sexually assaulted by a VA-contracted employee at the DC VA hospital.
The report revealed that VA officials sought damaging information about the veteran, in an apparent retaliation.
For the Congressional members, the incident raised several red flags as “the OIG was unable to determine whether anyone had accessed her medical record because her record hadn’t been sensitized to log this information.”
Another recent incident in Massachusetts showed a woman veteran was intimidated and sexually harassed by a supervisor from the VA’s National Call Center.
The supervisor improperly collected personal information from her VA medical records, then called the woman from his personal phone and made a range of threatening comments, among other abhorrent behaviors.
Just think for 40 seconds what’s in your medical records…. It’s not just your data/medical history - we’re often asked to disclose medical conditions of immediate family so our providers have a more detailed picture of the patient in front of them and consider the entirety of the medical history.
So if my BOSS went in to my medical records and threatened me???? Hell hath no fury.*
Makes ya wonder who has access to your medical records and who has accessed your medical records.
*May this also serve as a reminder that your employer pretty much never ever ever needs to know anything medically about you. If you’re seeking an accommodation, that’s different, like, say, a better chair for your bad back, or a certain computer screen for your eyes or certain shoes to wear instead of whatever company dress code/uniform is mandated. Even when you need to be out of the office, don’t tell your boss or workplace “I have a doctor’s appointment.” Just submit your time off request with zero commentary attached, or say, “I need x date off. Thanks.” Time off is not an accommodation - that’s an earned benefit (granted, at “white collar” jobs). LITERALLY NEVER discuss your medical stuff with your place of employment. HR, your boss, et al are perfectly fallible humans, and despite platitudes to the contrary, a bias will be formed and probably not in your favor. So tell Fkn Sharon in HR that you have privacy rights and don’t have to disclose medical information to the company and keep it movin’. Real talk.
