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An inadvertent data leak that stemmed from a physician's attempt to reconfigure a server cost New York Presbyterian Hospital and Columbia University Medical Center $4.8 million to settle with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). The hospitals and HHS announced the voluntary settlement, which ends an inquiry into the incident, on Wednesday.
From the article:
The breach occurred in 2010 after a physician at Columbia University Medical Center attempted to "deactivate" a personally owned computer from an New York Presbyterian network segment that contained sensitive patient health information, according to the HHS.
In a joint statement, the two hospitals blamed the leakage on an "errantly configured" computer server. The error left patient status, vital signs, laboratory results, medication information, and other sensitive data on about 6,800 individuals accessible to all via the Web.
New York Presbyterian will pay $3.3 million, while Columbia will pay $1.5 million to settle the complaint. The hospitals also agreed to take "substantive" corrective action, including development of a new risk management plan and new policies and procedures for handling patient data. HHS will also be provided with periodic progress updates under the agreement.
(Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Friday May 09 2014, @04:00PM
There are always a few users at any sufficiently large organization who think they're particularly clever with computers and are powerful enough to get their way. It wouldn't surprise me if it was mostly the doctor's fault for demanding a certain level of access he didn't deserve and threatening the IT department to give him what he asked for; they probably have documented his demands and raised objections.
This is based on my experience in a similar situation, doing IT work for various small health organizations. The doctors are usually more influential than the IT staff and get their way unless there is manager with a good head on their shoulders that knows how to tell them no.