Central Health is announcing today that a former employee has inappropriately accessed the health records of approximately 240 individuals.
“Central Health would like to apologize to each person who has had their privacy breached”, said Andree Robichaud, President and CEO of Central Health. “We take confidentiality and privacy very seriously and sincerely regret this has happened. Privacy breaches such as this are rare and extremely unfortunate. Central Health has zero tolerance for any such privacy breach.”
After becoming aware of the privacy breach, Central Health immediately launched an investigation and took steps to prevent further incidents. Central Health is in the process of contacting all affected individuals by phone. We are aiming to have these notifications completed this week.
Central Health places great emphasis on maintaining privacy and confidentiality of patient information through its privacy awareness and education framework. All new employees complete privacy training. Also Central Health completes routine and targeted audits of employee access for protection of privacy.
Central Health reported the breach to the Office of the Information and Privacy Commissioner (OIPC). Central Health works cooperatively with the OIPC with respect to protecting patient privacy.
If you receive services from Central Health and have privacy concerns, please feel free to call the Central Health Privacy Office at 709-256-5452.
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For media inquiries:
Gayle St. Croix Director of Communications (709) 572-1165 Gayle.stcroix@centralhealth.nl.ca
