Children’s Hospital Oakland Enhances Patient Privacy Protection After Accidental Release of Information

6/21/2010

Children’s Hospital & Research Center Oakland has taken steps to improve patient information privacy after approximately 1,000 patients in May received information about themselves as well as accidently receiving information about other patients.

There has been no indication that any patient information was misused, hospital officials said.

Hospital officials determined that equipment designed to generate, fold and stuff documents for mailing was programmed to fold and stuff two pages rather than one. This programming error caused guarantor billing statements prepared on May 25 and May 26 to be collated and mailed incorrectly. As a result, approximately 1,000 guarantor statements mailed included a second page that contained the guarantor statement for another person.

The statements included guarantor name and address, patient name, Children’s assigned account number, the date and location of the services provided, and the amount due for those services. No social security numbers, medical record numbers, dates of birth, telephone numbers or credit card information were included on the statements. All affected patients and guarantors have been notified of the occurrence.

Children’s Hospital Oakland is committed to providing the highest quality of medical care to all children and protecting the privacy and confidentiality of patients is of the utmost importance. In response to the incident, Children’s has reviewed and modified practices to ensure that errors such as this do not occur in the future.

Upon discovering the error, Children’s immediately notified all affected guarantors. Notification letters were sent to all affected patient guarantors on June 2. The notification letter instructed guarantors to destroy any statements that were addressed to someone else and suggested that guarantors closely examine any “Explanation of Benefits” sent by their health insurer. Families were also encouraged to contact Children’s Compliance and Privacy Officer with any questions about the occurrence.

Pursuant to the 2009 Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act, Children’s Hospital Oakland has notified patient families, the United States Department of Health and Human Services and the general public through a news release and informational post on the hospital’s web site, of this privacy breach.

For additional assistance regarding their account, affected patient guarantors should contact the Children's Hospital's Patient Accounting Department at 510-428-3485. For additional assistance regarding this notice, affected patient guarantors should contact Dana Read, RHIA, CHC, Compliance and Privacy Officer at 510-428-3574.