Snooper accessed medical records of ex-spouse, 34 others

Another medical snooping case has arisen in Saskatchewan, this time involving a Regina hospital worker who looked up sensitive records of an ex-spouse and 34 other people.

The case, which came to light after a female patient complained, was described in a report by the Saskatchewanprivacy and information commissioner posted this week to the Canlii legal database.

The employee inappropriately accessed personal health information ... of the employee's relatives and former spouse among others.- Report of privacy commissioner's office

In total, 97 records of 35 people were accessed by the employee, who did not have a job-related reason for going into the files.

"The employee is a medical lab assistant in the phlebotomy unit of the Regina General Hospital," the Aug. 17 report said.

"The employee inappropriately accessed personal health information such as medical record number (MRN), patient name, lab orders and ordering physician of the employee's relatives and former spouse among others."

The commissioner, Ron Kruzeniski, was critical of the way Regina Qu'Appelle handled the case, saying it didn't properly contain the privacy breach in a timely fashion.

As well, the health region waited more than five months to alert patients that someone had been snooping on their records, his report said.

He's telling the health region to tighten up its procedures and do a better job training employees about privacy issues.

He gave the region credit for proactively reporting the privacy breaches to his office, however.

Meanwhile, the employee is on a leave of absence and hasn't been disciplined yet. There's no word on why the employee was snooping into the files.

Once the employee returns, there will be an interview and "corrective measures" will be discussed, the health district told the commissioner's office.

The case is one of a number of medical privacy breachesthat have come to Kruzeniski'sattention in recent months.

Earlier this year, an employee of the Heartland Regional Health Authoritywho snooped on more than 900 patient records learned she would notbe getting her job back.

In May, provincial legislators toughened up the laws surrounding health record privacy in response to some serious breaches.