The use of memory sticks, portable USB computer flash drives, is a common way to store and transport data, but the use of memory sticks at a New Brunswick hospital is raising concerns about privacy.
A lost memory stick at Saint John Regional Hospital contains the information for fifteen hundred patients. Now the patients have been notified about the potential breach of privacy but what has made things worse, the device has been missing for months and Horizon Health is just now working on changes to protect patient privacy.
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The memory stick went missing from a pediatric endocrinologist in November. The Horizon Health Network believes the stick was simply misplaced but this incident was enough to cause some policy changes at the hospital.
“It was personal information about the patients, the demographic information, and it also included their medicare number,” says Horizon Health’s Chief Privacy Officer, Nancy Lindsay.
The hospital does have a server that backs up data but it was just never written in the policy that memory sticks are not allowed. Now they’re making improvements to that policy with one notable addition.
“Memory sticks will no longer be used to store personal health information that will definitely be part of the policy,” says Lindsay.
As far as the flash drive that was misplaced, if someone were to get a hold of it, getting data off it would depend if the user has a compatible program. This particular flash drive wasn’t encrypted.
With files from Tino Makris
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