Hundreds of people are receiving notices and apologies after a major privacy breach at Roseway Hospital in Shelburne.
South West Health says a hospital employee, accused of inappropriately accessing medical information on hundreds of patients through a work computer, has been fired.
Spokesperson Fraser Mooney described the situation as the worst medical privacy breach within the tri-counties in many years.
“We’ve had nothing of this magnitude,” he said.
In total, 707 people have received or will soon receive notifications that their patient information had been accessed inappropriately.
Mooney said the authority began an investigation in April after learning an employee was possibly sifting through personal medical records without a valid reason.
Mooney said the employee was immediately placed on leave and later fired when the privacy breach was confirmed.
“We’re taking this very seriously,” said Mooney. “We’re very sorry this occurred.”
Mooney said the employee had been conducting privacy breaches for months and that the health authority will now be taking a close look at its processes to reduce the possibility of similar breaches happening in the future.
“We will be looking across the board,” he said, noting that the vast majority of staff handle private information appropriately.
