The perils of outsourcing medical documentation

[InkAddict]

Fox News
FOX REPORT with Lori Dhue

COULD VET'S MEDICAL RECORDS END UP IN TERRORIST'S HANDS?
Jonathan Hunt reports, you decide.

Susan Purdue was the computer Systems Administrator at this Asheville, North Carolina office of MedQuist, a New Jersey based company providing medical transcription for Veterans hospitals. Shortly after 9-11, she noticed the times on some files transmitted from another office were half a day off and called to ask why.

“I was told that the reason for the discrepancy in the time stamp was because it was our offshore stuff and I said "offshore where" and she said well India and Pakistan but our clients don't know about that so don't say anything.” Purdue said, “I was watching this report upload and it was about this soldier who had been injured in Kandajar and he had been sent home and told to follow up with his local VA.”

Purdue’s managers told her to drop the issue, but in Sept 2002 she told them she was calling the FBI. Six months later, MedQuist closed its Asheville office. Purdue was the only employee not given another job.

.... "MedQuist is not in a position to confirm with certainty the adequacy of InfoScript's security measures prior to 2002." Citing an ongoing investigation, the VA would not discuss MedQuist directly but said contractors are required to safeguard patient data although "There are no regulations...that specifically address transcription work being performed offshore." VA Spokesperson
Purdue said, “The thing that keeps me awake at night to this day is thinking that some terrorist is going to come in this country with perfectly good travel credentials that belong to a veteran.”

In Asheville, North Carolina - Jonathan Hunt, Fox News

Repug Admin SNAFU? - Seems a bit odd that FAUX Would Care to Report This Security Issue. Perhaps they were just playing up to the vets on their day this past week?

[OldLeftieLawyer]

1. It's absurd

This whole process completely corrupts the doctor-patient relationship and renders meaningless the concept of confidentiality.

Ain't America great these days?

[Ilsa]

2. Earlier this year a file clerk in India threatened

to publish online the medical files of all patients in a California hospital because the workers (through a contractor and several subcontractors) had not been been paid. They got them paid lickety-split to prevent a massive violation of law. It just goes to show that once this information is out of our hands, we don't know how it will be used by others, or how we can prosecute them for misusing it.