Adult & Pediatric Dermatology, a firm that offers surgical and cosmetic skin care from offices in Marlborough, Westford, Concord and Wolfeboro, N.H., lost more than 2,000 patient records last month when a computer flash drive was stolen from an employee's car. The data stolen included digital photographs of surgical skin cancer procedures, operation reports and copies of consultation letters to referring doctors. The flash drive did not include Social Security numbers, credit card numbers, health insurance numbers, home phone numbers or home addresses. "We are all committed to delivering the highest quality care to our patients and we deeply regret what has happened," COO Glenn Smith wrote. "Our employee was a victim of a crime and this is the very unfortunate outcome of that crime." Company spokeswoman Ashley McCown said the information was contained in a flash drive that was stolen from an employee's locked car outside his or her home in Lowell. Through McCown, Smith declined to say whether the flash drive had been encrypted to prevent access to the data.
A Baltimore law firm lost a portable hard drive containing information about its cases, including medical records for 161 stent patients suing cardiologist Dr. Mark G. Midei, a firm client, for alleged malpractice at St. Joseph Medical Center in Towson. The drive was lost Aug. 4 by an employee of Baxter, Baker, Sidle, Conn & Jones who was traveling on the Baltimore light rail, according to a letter obtained by The Baltimore Sun that was sent to one of the stent patients last week -- two months after the drive went missing. The storage device held a complete back-up copy of the firm's data, including medical records related to the stent malpractice claims, along with patient names, addresses, dates of birth, social security numbers and insurance information. It was taken home nightly as a security precaution in case of fire or flood, a firm spokesman said, though the portable information was not encrypted -- among the most stringent security precautions that is standard practice for health professionals dealing with medical records.
Doctors in Richland will soon be able to quickly see medical records of patients from Prosser, cutting down on redundant tests, phone calls and delays. So promised officials from PMH Medical Center and Kadlec Regional Medical Center at a public announcement of a partnership between the two hospitals. The arrangement should have happened sooner, said Julie Petersen, CEO of PMH, formerly known as Prosser Memorial Hospital. "It's what the patient thinks is already happening," Petersen said. "They're puzzled when we're still faxing things back and forth." The partnership is a nonbinding agreement that could pave the way for more alliances down the road, including sending Kadlec specialists to practice a day or two a week in Prosser clinics. It's not a merger or even a precursor to one, officials said.
Technology is helping to identify patients who don't take their medications -- and giving health-care providers new opportunities to improve adherence, today's Informed Patient column reports. At Kaiser Permanente Colorado, an electronic prescribing system linked to digitized pharmacy and medical records flags patients who don't pick up or refill needed drugs. In a recent study published in the Journal of General Internal Medicine, the large nonprofit health system reported that patients who get care in such integrated health care systems more often collect their new prescriptions for diabetes, cholesterol and high blood pressure medications than do people who receive care in a non-integrated system. The study recommended that health care providers directly link orders with dispensed prescriptions to identify non-adherent patients.
Mercy Health plans to build a new hospital and other medical facilities in St. Charles County and a "virtual care center" in Chesterfield. Mercy announced the projects, part of a larger eight-year investment plan, on Tuesday evening at a presentation before 150 invited guests, including Gov. Jay Nixon, at the Edward Jones Atrium on Manchester Road. Mercy president and chief executive Lynn Britton said that plans to build a hospital, a multispecialty clinic and other facilities in the St. Louis area's most rapidly expanding county are still in the early planning stages. The building projects are budgeted for $290 million in St. Charles County and $90 million in Chesterfield. Mercy Health, whose assets total about $4.4 billion, operates Mercy Hospital St. Louis in Creve Coeur and 27 other hospitals in four states including Arkansas, Kansas, Missouri and Oklahoma. It employs about 28,000 people system wide.
With the U.S. Capitol looming behind him and 14 boxes filled with petitions stacked in front of him, Rep. Tom Price demanded action. "It's time now for Senate Democrats to represent their constituents and repeal this bill," the Republican from Roswell told a row of television cameras last week. The object of his ire was the Affordable Care Act, better known by foes as "Obamacare." Featuring 10 conservative Republican members of Congress, the news conference was organized by a group that claimed it collected 1.6 million signatures demanding repeal. But the Democratic Senate and White House remain legislative brick walls to the effort. Short of a full repeal, which the GOP-controlled House passed in January, Republicans are pitching a series of bills designed to take apart pieces of it. Georgia's three physician members—Price and Reps. Phil Gingrey, R-Marietta, and Paul Broun, R-Athens—have been particularly active in the push. Price and Broun have drafted bills to replace the law, even though Republican leaders for now are giving higher priority to undoing new environmental and labor regulations.