Re: Was this VistA?

[Walt Biggs]

I would expect that this would indeed be VistA. Employee health information is stored in the patient file. This is to support things like TB tests, needle stick lab work, immunizations, etc. In addition, some employees are also patients sometimes. Employee records are marked as sensitive records, however, and the user examining them has to make a claim that he had legitimate reasons to examine the record and the access is reviewed by the security officer. However, I think what is being objected to in the article you cite is the identifiers for the reocrd that are shown even if you do not select the record for viewing. The SSN and DOB are usually shown whenever entries are listed for selection, along with sex, aliases, and possibly other items. On a system I managed, I also showed a state patient ID #, current movement status and current ward if inpatient.

It's an interesting issue, and not one that I would think unique to the VA.
Walt

Tim Churches wrote:

From a Google-cached FoxNews web page. Was the system mentioned VistA?

Tim C

Veterans Department Sued
By Employees Over Privacy Breach
Friday, November 3, 2000
By D. Ian Hopper


WASHINGTON - Department of Veterans Affairs employees are suing the
government, accusing the VA of breaching their privacy by giving fellow
workers and some patients access to their Social Security numbers and
dates of birth.

The class-action suit on behalf of the VA's 180,000 employees seeks
$1,000 for each one, the minimum amount under the 1974 Privacy Act.
If successful, that would total about $180 million.

The suit says that through an internal patient record system, employees'
personal information appeared along with the medical information on
patients. Workers at any VA facility could check up on VA workers
anywhere else, said the lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court in
Wisconsin last month. It said there were no warning screens or logs
of who accessed the information.