As published in State Bar of Michigan Health Care Law Section“In recent years, the likelihood of suffering a data breach has risen significantly for American companies across numerous industries. Health care providers, in particular, have been targeted due to the value of the sensitive information they hold regarding their patients and employees, including birth
Companies routinely farm out document destruction to shredding vendors. But taking “farming out” too literally caused a nursing home to ruffle a regulator’s feathers.
A report by a Canadian privacy commissioner has found that a nursing home’s contract with a chicken farm to destroy patient information violated the Health Information Protection Act.
The commissioner’s investigation incubated after the nursing home’s recycling bins served as a roost for its residents’ protected health information. This investigation revealed a contract the nursing home hatched with an undisclosed chicken farm to shred documents.
Continue Reading Nursing Home’s Use of a “Chicken Farm” to Shred Confidential Information Has Privacy Commissioner Crying Fowl