No reason to believe fraudulent purposes BUT check your credit report. What a load of ****.
The Georgia Bureau of Investigation was called in Monday to examine possibly hundreds of lab records of patients and employees of East Central Regional Hospital that were found in the home of a former lab technician, a spokesman for the Georgia Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Disabilities said.
No criminal charges are pending against the former technician, who worked for the hospital from January 2006 to July, spokesman Tom Wilson said.
The department is withholding her name out of deference to the GBI investigation, he said.
"We have no reason to believe she was doing it for any fraudulent purpose," Mr. Wilson said, chalking it up to "poor work habits."
Nonetheless, the department suggested that anyone who had lab work done at the hospital during that time -- at either the Augusta or Gracewood campuses -- might want to check his or her credit report, he said.
The records were discovered Friday in an Augusta house the woman had moved out of, Mr. Wilson said. The landlord apparently discovered the records and called the department. There is no accurate count at this point, but it could be "easily hundreds," Mr. Wilson said.
There is no evidence at this point that anyone but the technician and the landlord had seen them, he said. Patient records do not contain Social Security numbers but might have addresses or other personal information, Mr. Wilson said.
Employee records might or might not contain Social Security numbers, he said.
The department will wait until any GBI investigation is complete and then will begin notifying patients and employees by letter or internally if their records were involved, Mr. Wilson said.
Reach Tom Corwin at (706) 823-3213 or tom.corwin@augustachronicle.com.
Comments
No reason to believe fraudulent purposes BUT check your credit report. What a load of ****.
Who did it?
Why check your credit report if all you have is a name and an address? It takes a bit more than that. You can ride around town and get that information from mailboxes. Why is this info newsworthy if AC can't supply a name?
Why in the heck would she have taken them home if she had no plans to do anything with them? That doesn't make sense!!
There is no possible reason to take hospital records to your home if there no harm intended,the records should not even leave the hospital at all.There's a lot more in those records than name and address.I worked as a nurse for 39 years,and can tell you this a coverup attempt.
Was this person allowed to take these records home for data entry? Why did she take them home? Why is her name being withheld? Too many questions here.
Poor work habits?...Like of like Mr. Roundtree.
A concerned mother?
This is against the HIPPA laws, and those laws have now been violated.
WOW- major HIPPA, as well as a personal violation!!!! They need to make an example of her and prosecute to the fullest extent of the law, regarding HIPPA laws. But, isn't that a federal law? Shouldn't the feds be in on this investigation?
I worked at East Central Regional Hospital for 2 years. I can assure you that this was not "bad work habits". This is another case of the hospital attempting to make records disappear. I have seen it while being an employee as well as seen medical records forged and changed to cover up patient abuse and patient neglect. I have witnessed staff report patient abuse and neglect, then terminated because of "allegations of misconduct". Having the records in the home is a violation of HIPPA, as I am sure there were other people who viewed the records at the person's home. Just another black eye for East Central, an institution that does not care about the mental health patients it is supposed to help. With a nursing staff that that performs daily patient assessments, but spends no time with the patients, a doctor staff that talks to each patient everyday for a total 3 minutes, and health service technicians who are so improperly trained, one has to wonder what tragic event has to happen before someone conducts a "real" investigation of the hospital. Sorry to say this case is just one of the many violations the hospital employees commit everyday.
Does anyone really believe that it was "poor work habits"? Why would a lab tech have any reason to take confidential patients' records home in the first place?
why make a mountain out of a mole hill?
Wait until you find out the real truth about things before you go running your mouth.
Read carefully what Speakthetruth said. Keep in mind the history of the institution. Look carefully into those Robin Williams personally saw were hired by going outside of the normal Georgia civil service guidelines. This could be a pretty big story with at least one well known name involved.
BIGGIRL, I guess in your world, medical records aren't confidential. I just wonder how many people were misdiagnosed or given improper care because the lab results were missing from their file. And where does theft of other people's property fit in to your view of things?
The question is why did she leave her crap for someone else to take care of it? Yes she got caught and must face the consequences for being irresponsible.
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