Beacon Health System notifies data breach from worker snooping

A worker at Beacon Health System in South Bend, Ind., who for 3 years was accessing patient emergency department (ED) records without permission or a reason to analyze them, has been blamed for a breach of protected health information at the facility.

An audit by Beacon Health found the unwarranted access of patient information, which occurred from the time period of March 2014 to March 2017.

“While the worker might have had authorizations to view records in certain circumstances, the employee viewed patient records without a permissible reason,” the 3-hospital delivery system pointed out in a press release to local media.

“The worker refused taking or misusing any information, and we’ve no evidence that any data was used to commit fraud or otherwise misused,” the statement continued, demonstrating that the employee is no longer employed at Beacon Health System.

Compromised information involves patient names, Social Security numbers, ages, diagnoses, room numbers, acuity of sickness, chief complaints and some financial and insurance coverage information.

Beacon Heath System is reviewing training materials and putting in place new processes to decrease the likelihood of a similar tragedy occurring again. Affected individuals are being offered 1 year of identity monitoring and identity restoration services from Experian, and they are being asserted to monitor account statements and credit reports.

This is the 2nd major breach of protected health information for Beacon Health System, which operates 3 hospitals, home care services and a medical group practice. A hacking tragedy in May 2015 affected 306,789 people.

Beacon Health refused to give more information on the most recent tragedy, but sent the following statement about the incident:

“Beacon Health System’s Information Security and Privacy Team monitor worker access to records 24/7 and investigate potential issues for appropriateness on a daily basis. After an anomaly outside of Beacon’s routine monitoring was traced, upon further review, there was proof that records other than those that were required to complete this individual’s job duties were viewed. A third party forensic review validated that no data was electronically downloaded or transferred. Out of an abundance of caution, Beacon took the most conservative route to report the tragedy and notify those involved.”

 

Quicker approach to info gives care quality benefits

A latest study indicates health information exchange can make better emergency department care and provide care quality benefits through faster access to patient data arranged by outside healthcare agencies.

The study concentrated on Epic Systems’ Care Everywhere HIE platform to assess whether it gave more timely information access in the ED, in comparison with standard telephone- and fax-based approaches to data retrieval from outside agencies. In the study, outside information appeals were either fulfilled through Epic’s Care Everywhere or fax/scan to the electronic health record (EHR) system.

The results, issued in the Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association, involved EHR audit log data from 2,163 sufferers seen in the ED at the institute of University of Michigan Health System from the time period of February 2014 to February 2015.

“Those were all the sufferers for whom an outside record request was made during a 1-year time period,” claims Julia Adler-Milstein, co-author of the article and assistant professor in the School of Information and School of Public Health at the University of Michigan.

In accordance to Adler-Milstein, sufferer data from outside healthcare agencies was readily present to ED staff using Epic’s Care Everywhere. She points out that the HIE platform was linked with faster outside information access for care quality benefits versus fax/scan, and faster approach was linked with more effective ED care.

“When the data came back through fax, clinicians saw the data almost an hour later than HIE,” analyzes Adler-Milstein. “The sooner the data comes in, the sooner the clinician actually sees it. When it comes back slower, the affect on care is less.”

Though there was no direct association between return of data through HIE versus fax/scan and ED results, the study results disclose that for each 1-hour reduction in access time, visit length was 52.9 minutes shorter; the likelihood of imaging was lower (by 2.5, 1.6, and 2.4% points for CT, MRI, and radiographs, respectively); the likelihood of admission was 2.4% points lower; and average costs were $1,187 lower.

“While our research concentrates on one type of HIE, Care Everywhere, it is likely that the care quality benefits from faster access to data could be realized utilizing different approaches to HIE,” summarizes the JAMIA article. “Provider agencies are hence likely to benefit from investing in forms of HIE and associated workflows that make sure that ED clinicians can view data from outside agencies in a timely manner.”

 

New York City HIE adds analytics abilities

Health information exchange vendor Healthix, which has facilitated New York City and Long Island healthcare organizations for 8 years, is augmenting its data analytics services to involve predictive analytics using a technology platform from HBI Solutions.

Over the years, contributors in the region have sent visit data to the HIE that Healthix manages to compile a consolidated record of sufferers. Its database now includes data on more than 16 million patients, involving some who do not live in the region but received treatment while there.

Healthix can alert providers when a sufferer is admitted or readmitted to the hospital, or is admitted to the emergency department or returns to ED. The underlying Healthix HIE platform, from InterSystems, involves the vendor’s Health Insight analytics to assess present conditions of patients in a healthcare organization’s patient population, and it sends alerts to providers, such as when test results are available.