• Blog
  • Services
    • PHIshMD Ongoing Training
    • HIPAA Compliance
    • Discover Vulnerabilities to Patient PHI
  • Store
    • HIPAA Secure Now Service Store
  • Contact Us
    • Sales Inquiry
    • Customer Support
  • Resources
    • Free Healthcare Security Check Up Quiz
    • HIPAA Compliance Requirements | A Guide
    • Webinars & Downloadable Content
    • Use our free Breach Cost Calculator
    • HIPAA Secured Seal
    • In-Email Training & Analysis | Catch Phish

Call us at: 877-275-4545

Client or Partner? Login here
HIPAA Secure Now!HIPAA Secure Now!
  • Blog
  • Services
    • PHIshMD Ongoing Training
    • HIPAA Compliance
    • Discover Vulnerabilities to Patient PHI
  • Store
    • HIPAA Secure Now Service Store
  • Contact Us
    • Sales Inquiry
    • Customer Support
  • Resources
    • Free Healthcare Security Check Up Quiz
    • HIPAA Compliance Requirements | A Guide
    • Webinars & Downloadable Content
    • Use our free Breach Cost Calculator
    • HIPAA Secured Seal
    • In-Email Training & Analysis | Catch Phish

Your employees will cause your next HIPAA breach

August 6, 2013 Posted by Art Gross HIPAA, Security Training No Comments

When people think of HIPAA breaches a lot of times they think of hackers breaking into a network and stealing patient information. While that is a real concern, another cause of breaches should not be ignored. What is the other cause of breaches you should be concern with? Your employees. Employees cause HIPAA breaches. In two recent incidents, employees of healthcare organizations caused large HIPAA breaches. Neither breach was done maliciously but both resulted in patient notifications.

Employee sends PHI via email to herself

The first breach occurred at Rocky Mountain Spine Clinic:

Lone Tree, Colo.-based Rocky Mountain Spine Clinic is notifying its patients of a HIPAA data breach after a former employee inappropriately emailed herself a document containing the protected health information of 532 patients.

The clinic announced the incident Wednesday and has since fired the employee, according to a report by the Denver Post.

The email sent to the former employee’s personal account contained patient names, insurance company data and information about patients’ surgical procedures.

Employees use Google cloud services

The second breached, which occurred at Oregon Health & Science University, caused by employees resulted in 3,044 patients being notified. Physician and residents were using Google cloud services to maintain patient information. Google is not a Business Associate for Oregon Health & Science University.

The Oregon Health & Science University has notified 3,044 patients that their protected health information has been compromised after several residents and physicians-in-training inappropriately used Google cloud services to maintain a spreadsheet of patient data.

The Google cloud Internet-based service provider is not an OHSU business associate with a contractual agreement to use or store OHSU patient health information, according to officials.

Employee Training

Both of the above HIPAA breaches were caused by employees. The breaches were for different reasons but they both have a common theme. The lack of employee training and understanding of protecting patient information will cause HIPAA breaches. Employees must understand how to protect patient information. They need to know what is appropriate and what is inappropriate when handling patient information. It is critical that all employees receive HIPAA security training.

Don’t assume that your employees understand the HIPAA requirements. HIPAA breaches are expensive. It is a lot cheaper to provide employee security training so employees understand how to protect patient information and avoid HIPAA breaches.

[framed_box bgColor=”#ffd390″]

Free HIPAA Security Training!

All Covered Entities and Business Associates need to train their employees on HIPAA security. We now offer free online HIPAA security training for Covered Entities and Business Associates. Find out more about our free training and send the information to ALL your colleagues and Business Associates.

Now it is easy to train your employees on protecting patient information!


[/framed_box]
Tags: BreachSecurity Training
No Comments
Share
0

You also might be interested in

Introducing HIPAA Secure Now!

Feb 13, 2011

We are proud to announce the launch of the HIPAA[...]

Employee training might produce the best security ROI

Employee training might produce the best security ROI

Feb 21, 2011

There are countless security products on the market today. You[...]

Using patient record security as a competitive advantage

Using patient record security as a competitive advantage

Mar 7, 2011

The following blog was written a year ago but the[...]

Leave a Reply Cancel Reply

Recent Posts

  • HIPAA Security Policies
  • Restructuring the OCR
  • HIPAA: P for Portability
  • OCR Healthcare Report Released
  • HIPAA Compliance & Cybersecurity: How They Differ

Recent Comments

  • Milan on PHI or PII – What’s the Difference?
  • Automatic Backlinks on Free HIPAA Security Training!
  • Lisa Porter on Free HIPAA Security Training!
  • Roseanne ruiz on Health Apps & HIPAA
  • Roseanne ruiz on PHI or PII – What’s the Difference?

Archives

  • March 2023
  • February 2023
  • January 2023
  • December 2022
  • November 2022
  • October 2022
  • September 2022
  • August 2022
  • July 2022
  • June 2022
  • May 2022
  • April 2022
  • March 2022
  • February 2022
  • January 2022
  • December 2021
  • November 2021
  • October 2021
  • September 2021
  • August 2021
  • July 2021
  • June 2021
  • May 2021
  • April 2021
  • March 2021
  • February 2021
  • January 2021
  • December 2020
  • November 2020
  • October 2020
  • September 2020
  • August 2020
  • July 2020
  • June 2020
  • May 2020
  • April 2020
  • March 2020
  • February 2020
  • January 2020
  • December 2019
  • November 2019
  • October 2019
  • September 2019
  • August 2019
  • July 2019
  • June 2019
  • May 2019
  • April 2019
  • March 2019
  • February 2019
  • January 2019
  • November 2018
  • October 2018
  • September 2018
  • August 2018
  • July 2018
  • June 2018
  • May 2018
  • April 2018
  • March 2018
  • February 2018
  • January 2018
  • December 2017
  • November 2017
  • October 2017
  • September 2017
  • August 2017
  • July 2017
  • June 2017
  • May 2017
  • April 2017
  • March 2017
  • February 2017
  • January 2017
  • December 2016
  • November 2016
  • October 2016
  • September 2016
  • August 2016
  • July 2016
  • June 2016
  • May 2016
  • April 2016
  • March 2016
  • February 2016
  • January 2016
  • December 2015
  • November 2015
  • October 2015
  • September 2015
  • August 2015
  • June 2015
  • May 2015
  • April 2015
  • March 2015
  • February 2015
  • January 2015
  • December 2014
  • November 2014
  • October 2014
  • September 2014
  • August 2014
  • July 2014
  • June 2014
  • May 2014
  • April 2014
  • March 2014
  • February 2014
  • January 2014
  • December 2013
  • November 2013
  • October 2013
  • September 2013
  • August 2013
  • July 2013
  • June 2013
  • May 2013
  • April 2013
  • March 2013
  • February 2013
  • January 2013
  • December 2012
  • November 2012
  • October 2012
  • September 2012
  • July 2012
  • June 2012
  • May 2012
  • April 2012
  • March 2012
  • February 2012
  • January 2012
  • December 2011
  • November 2011
  • October 2011
  • September 2011
  • August 2011
  • July 2011
  • June 2011
  • May 2011
  • April 2011
  • March 2011
  • February 2011

Categories

  • Backup & Disaster Recovery
  • Business Associates
  • Client News
  • Download
  • Healthcare Industry
  • HIPAA
  • HIPAA Audits
  • HIPAA Violations
  • HSN News
  • Legal
  • MACRA
  • Policies and Procedures
  • Press Release
  • Remote Workforce
  • Risk Assessment
  • Scams
  • Security
  • Security Reminders
  • Security Training
  • Telehealth
  • Uncategorized
  • Webinar
  • Website

Meta

  • Log in
  • Entries feed
  • Comments feed
  • WordPress.org

Contact Us

  • HIPAA Secure Now
  • 55 Madison Ave, Suite 400 Morristown, NJ 07960
  • (877) 275 - 4545
  • info@hipaasecurenow.com

Find us on Social Media

Recent Posts

  • HIPAA Security Policies March 21, 2023
  • Restructuring the OCR March 14, 2023
  • HIPAA: P for Portability March 7, 2023
  • OCR Healthcare Report Released February 28, 2023
  • HIPAA Compliance & Cybersecurity: How They Differ February 21, 2023

Subscribe to our Newsletter

  • Hidden

© 2023 · HIPAA Secure Now!

Prev Next