Paramedics in Hamilton, Ont., say they’re modifying patient-sharing procedures after sending the personal health information of several patients to the wrong hospitals.
Hamilton Paramedic Service (HPS) admitted they “accidentally” sent information about some 162 patients to the wrong health facility after scanning some 306,000 records over four years they believe may have been affected.
The discovery was made in October after St. Joseph’s Healthcare in London received eight electronic medical records from a patient care report.
“Every one of the records should have gone to St Joseph’s Healthcare in Hamilton,” HPS chief Mike Sanderson explained.
“So that’s a human error in the process, they’re coming off the pick list and in the activity you scroll down on it. They picked the wrong one.”
Sanderson added that 124 paramedics were involved in making such mistakes and that none of the situations were urgent life-threatening incidents.
Most of the entries happened post-occurrence and were tied to the reconciliation of paperwork, according to Sanderson.
He went on to say the ‘pick list’ has since been altered and staff re-trained on the procedure.
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HPS insists none of the information, tied to patient transports, was shared publicly and that records were “received and held” by hospitals and later destroyed.
The service said the matter was confined to just four to five hospitals in southwestern Ontario and that affected individuals represent only about 0.5 per cent of all records believed to have been shared incorrectly.
“On behalf of the Service, I would like to extend my deepest apologies to the affected patients who entrusted their care and health information to us,” Sanderson said.
“We take patient privacy very seriously, and our team has taken action to improve processes and strengthen our system to protect patient information and ensure that patient confidentiality remains paramount.”
The office of the Information and Privacy Commissioner of Ontario has confirmed they are looking into the matter but said they were unable to share details on their investigation.
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