Wrong Phone/Fax Number Leads to Security Breach – and Keeps Happening

This one sounds like someone is too lazy to change the auto dial number in their Fax machine, in the meantime, confidential records keep getting sent to the wrong place. It does happen once in a while, but for repeated faxes to keep rolling in, again I think someone needs to fix the number on their fax machine or software listing, whichever they are using to fax. I wonder if anyone around any of the places mentioned may have heard of electronic medical records with integration? BD

Doctors' offices in Tennessee have been accidentally sending patient information, including Social Security numbers and medical histories, to an Indiana businessman's fax machine for the past three years. Keith's fax rang 167 times in a month at the peak of the problem, he said. Keith said he hasn't kept an exact count, but his office averages about five patient faxes a week and sometimes more.

The sensitive medical information was supposed to be sent to the Tennessee Department of Human Services, but Bill Keith, owner of SunRise Solar Inc. in Indiana, says hundreds of confidential medical faxes having been coming to him.

"This is a total breach of privacy," Keith said. "This is supposed to be confidential, and it just so happens we have some scruples here and wouldn't do anything with that information. We've shredded them, but you can have a file an inch thick in no time.''

Keith has tried to correct the problem with the state and doctors' offices but to no avail. He even called the governor's office. State officials say they have contacted the doctors' offices and told them to be sure to use the correct fax number. Doctors' offices in Nashville, Johnson City and Germantown are among the many that sent medical information to the wrong place.

Doctors mistakenly fax patients' data to Indiana company | tennessean.com | The Tennessean