results of an investigation<\/a> that began after receiving reports of \u2018snooping\u2019 from Vancouver Coastal Health (VCH), the Fraser Health Authority (FHA), Providence Health Care (PHC) and the Provincial Health Services Authority (PHSA).<\/p>\nOn April 26, 2025, a driver rammed an SUV through the crowds at a Filipino street festival, killing 11 people and injuring dozens more.<\/p>\n
The OIPC says VCH reported the first incident of unauthorized access to patient information by employees on April 30.<\/p>\n
Between then and June 20, the office says it received reports of 71 more snooping incidents into the medical records of 16 people \u2014 half of the total who received care related to the attack.<\/p>\n
\u201cThese breaches were committed by 35 employees of the health authorities and PHC, and in one other case, by an assistant at a physician\u2019s office who had access to an FHA electronic medical records system. In most cases, these employees invaded individuals\u2019 privacy to satisfy their own curiosity,\u201d said the OIPC.<\/p>\n
It added, \u201cIn some cases, employees accessed patient records multiple times. For example, in one instance, an employee accessed the personal information of nine patients in a single day; in another case, an employee repeatedly accessed one patient\u2019s file. Moreover, two employees went on to disclose patient information to colleagues.\u201d<\/p>\n
The report says privacy violations can lead to further stress on patients, deteriorate the reputation of the health-care system, and compromise care.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn the digital age, with personal health information stored in information systems and accessed in seconds by way of a login, it is of paramount importance that public bodies have measures in place to secure personal information from unauthorized access.\u201d<\/p>\n
In a video statement, Commissioner Michael Harvey said the authorities had reasonable security measures to prevent snooping, but found that those measures can be overcome, and more needs to be done to prevent breaches and contain the risk of harm.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs evidenced by the fact that the snooping happened, they weren\u2019t perfect,\u201d said Harvey.<\/p>\n
His report says the violators faced a variety of sanctions for their actions, including \u201cwritten reprimands, decommissioning access to records systems, suspensions, and termination.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cSome employees were also required to retake privacy training and re-sign confidentiality agreements, and all are subject to additional monitoring.\u201d<\/p>\n
The report includes nine recommendations to both specific and all health authorities, including imposing more disciplinary measures strong enough to effectively sanction and deter snooping.<\/p>\n
\u201cAfter reviewing the report, the health authorities accepted the recommendations and had moved ahead with notifications,\u201d said Harvey.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think this is important as people should be able to know what happened to their\u2019s or their loved one\u2019s private information and what is being done about it. \u201c<\/p>\n
1130 NewsRadio has reached out to the health authorities and Filipino BC for comment.<\/p>\n
\u2014With files from David Nadalini.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Half of the victims taken to hospital for medical care after Vancouver\u2019s tragic Lapu-Lapu Day attack had their…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":485906,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194298],"tags":[49,48,55],"class_list":["post-485905","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-vancouver","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-vancouver"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/485905","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=485905"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/485905\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/485906"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=485905"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=485905"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=485905"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}