❓ Hon. Sally Talbot questions the Minister for Mental Health regarding a breach of patient confidentiality at the Alma Street clinic. The Minister confirms an investigation is underway and patients will be informed of the breach as soon as possible.
AnsweredQoN 366Legislative Council
QuestionView source ↗
ALMA STREET CLINIC — PATIENT INFORMATION
366. Hon SALLY
TALBOT to the Minister for Mental Health:
I refer to
question without notice 357 yesterday about an incident on Thursday, 25 July
2013 when a document containing confidential information relating to mental
health patients was found in the street near the Alma Street clinic in
Fremantle, and I ask questions again.
(1) What
information did the document contain?
(2) Was the
document printed by an employee of the clinic?
(3) Has an
investigation been carried out into the incident?
(4) If so, who
carried out the investigation and what was the outcome; and if not, why not?
(5) Were the
patients whose confidentiality was breached informed of the breach; and, if
not, why not?
366. Hon SALLY
TALBOT to the Minister for Mental Health:
I refer to
question without notice 357 yesterday about an incident on Thursday, 25 July
2013 when a document containing confidential information relating to mental
health patients was found in the street near the Alma Street clinic in
Fremantle, and I ask questions again.
(1) What
information did the document contain?
(2) Was the
document printed by an employee of the clinic?
(3) Has an
investigation been carried out into the incident?
(4) If so, who
carried out the investigation and what was the outcome; and if not, why not?
(5) Were the
patients whose confidentiality was breached informed of the breach; and, if
not, why not?
AnswerView source ↗
I thank the
member for putting the question on notice.
(1) I have not seen the actual document but I
have seen a similar document. It is a one-page A4 document. It has a printed
category section across the top of it with the patient's name, ward and
date of admission and another category at the side of that. It is used by teams
and all members of the team, like the team doctor, the team registrar and the
team nurse et cetera. It has the name of the patient on one side of it and it
has the provisional diagnosis. It lists the ward and the date of admission
across the page and there is a bit of space at the end for the individual team
member to handwrite notes they may need to refer to during the day about action
they will take in regards to that patient. That is what appears on the document
that was found.
I
understand that a particular staff member had this one-page document folded up
in their pocket, went outside the hospital grounds and for whatever reason the
document came out of the pocket. It was handed back and I really appreciate the
person who handed the document back into the hospital. The potential
difficulties or damage around this incident have been relatively well contained
because of the foresight of the person who handed the document back at the
time.
(2) The member's second question was:
was the document printed by an employee of the clinic? It is a form that is
printed by the clinic and then it is filled in by hand, so the answer to the
question is yes.
(3)–(4) An internal investigation is
being conducted by Mental Health executive to make sure that something like
this does not happen again and to ensure that the necessity of a document of
that nature not going outside the hospital is reinforced to staff.
(5) The member asked: were the patients whose
confidentiality was breached informed of the breach; and, if not, why not? The
timing of this incident is unfortunate in that the IT system at the hospital
was recently updated and staff are in the process of retrieving those
individual patients' names and contact details. They will be contacted
as soon as possible, as soon as the information is provided.
member for putting the question on notice.
(1) I have not seen the actual document but I
have seen a similar document. It is a one-page A4 document. It has a printed
category section across the top of it with the patient's name, ward and
date of admission and another category at the side of that. It is used by teams
and all members of the team, like the team doctor, the team registrar and the
team nurse et cetera. It has the name of the patient on one side of it and it
has the provisional diagnosis. It lists the ward and the date of admission
across the page and there is a bit of space at the end for the individual team
member to handwrite notes they may need to refer to during the day about action
they will take in regards to that patient. That is what appears on the document
that was found.
I
understand that a particular staff member had this one-page document folded up
in their pocket, went outside the hospital grounds and for whatever reason the
document came out of the pocket. It was handed back and I really appreciate the
person who handed the document back into the hospital. The potential
difficulties or damage around this incident have been relatively well contained
because of the foresight of the person who handed the document back at the
time.
(2) The member's second question was:
was the document printed by an employee of the clinic? It is a form that is
printed by the clinic and then it is filled in by hand, so the answer to the
question is yes.
(3)–(4) An internal investigation is
being conducted by Mental Health executive to make sure that something like
this does not happen again and to ensure that the necessity of a document of
that nature not going outside the hospital is reinforced to staff.
(5) The member asked: were the patients whose
confidentiality was breached informed of the breach; and, if not, why not? The
timing of this incident is unfortunate in that the IT system at the hospital
was recently updated and staff are in the process of retrieving those
individual patients' names and contact details. They will be contacted
as soon as possible, as soon as the information is provided.
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