Patient Privacy Breaches: Sexual, Creepy, and Illegal

Michael J. Sacopulos, JD

March 06, 2014

Takeaway Lessons

Patient privacy breaches can happen in an infinite variety of bizarre ways. Colleagues and employees sometimes display poor judgment when handling patient data. Better procedures and more training help to reduce breaches. Unfortunately, some breaches will continue to occur simply because people are naughty at times.

However, by having official and documentable programs in place to teach employees about respecting data privacy, and by having penalties for staff members who breach those rules, you will help to protect yourself in the event that data breaches occur, and you will also protect your patients.

Michael J. Sacopulos is the CEO of Medical Risk Institute (MRI). MRI provides proactive counsel to the healthcare community to identify where liability risks originate, and to reduce or remove these risks. Sacopulos won the 2012 Edward B. Stevens Article of the Year Award for MGMA. He has written for Wall Street Journal, Forbes, Bloomberg, and many publications for the medical profession and is a frequent national speaker. Sacopulos attended Harvard College, London School of Economics, and Indiana University Robert H. McKinney School of Law. He may be reached at msacopulos@medriskinstitute.com

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