CHI<\/a>, sent a memo to all staff members entitled \u201cmisplaced healthcare records\u201d.<\/p>\n\u201cA healthcare record has recently been reported misplaced at CHI. Despite a thorough search process, the original record has not been recovered,\u201d the memo said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn accordance with our statutory obligations, this incident has been reported to the Data Protection Commission\u201d.<\/p>\n
According to Ms Hartnett, this is a \u201cserious data-protection breach and a reminder of the critical importance of following all healthcare record procedures\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cStaff must strictly comply with the HSE standards for healthcare records management and CHI data-protection policies\u201d.<\/p>\n
Separately, the DPC carried out an unannounced inspection at CHI Tallaght last week on foot of a complaint.<\/p>\n
The inspection took place in a shared office for non-consultant hospital doctors (NCHDs) on the first floor of the hospital.<\/p>\n
It is understood the door to the shared office, containing hundreds of patient charts, was propped open \u2013 making it accessible to people walking by. When closed properly, the door is locked with a keypad.<\/p>\n
Dr Turlough Bolger, a consultant in emergency medicine, sent an email to staff at the hospital on Thursday morning, the day after the inspection.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe report will be received in the coming weeks but they expressed concern regarding the number of charts in the room yesterday (approx 320 charts) and the amount of loose pages with patient details,\u201d his email states.<\/p>\n
\u201cI expect that the recommendations will be wide-ranging and damaging to CHI at Tallaght.\u201d<\/p>\n
Dr Bolger said he appreciates the \u201chard work\u201d made by staff to reduce the number of outstanding discharge charts in recent weeks, which has seen a \u201csignificant reduction\u201d from 900 to 600 charts.<\/p>\n
\u201cI have said repeatedly that there needs to be a sustainable approach to this issue. Ultimately, as the accountable officer in CHI at Tallaght, I am responsible for the overall situation regarding medical records.\u201d<\/p>\n
Dr Bolger said as the accountable officer, he \u201ccannot rely on blitzes to clear backlogs as routine\u201d.<\/p>\n
In order to clear the current backlog, Dr Bolger said he had requested that four NCHDs be allocated to discharges daily. He added that there was a need for \u201can emphasis on the use of the confidential shredding bin for most of the loose pages\u201d.<\/p>\n
A spokesman for the DPC confirmed a team carried out an inspection at CHI Tallaght last week.<\/p>\n
\u201cEnquiries relating to this inspection are ongoing at present,\u201d the spokesman said. \u201cWe are not in a position to provide any further comment at this time.\u201d<\/p>\n
In relation to the unannounced inspection, a spokeswoman for CHI said a data breach \u201chas not been confirmed at this time\u201d and the inspection related to a \u201cpotential data breach\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cImmediate measures have been taken to reduce any potential risk, including reinforcing physical safeguards and engaging directly with staff,\u201d the spokeswoman said.<\/p>\n
\u201cAdditional actions will follow, as appropriate, in line with our internal procedures and any recommendations issued by the DPC as part of its broader oversight.\u201d<\/p>\n
The spokeswoman added that CHI is transitioning to a \u201cfully digital health records system and, once complete, this will significantly reduce reliance on paper charts\u201d.<\/p>\n
CHI has faced significant public and political scrutiny in recent months, particularly in relation to the governance and oversight of its paediatric orthopaedic services. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A Dublin children\u2019s hospital has had a \u201cserious data-protection breach\u201d after a patient\u2019s healthcare record was \u201cmisplaced\u201d, a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":13514,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[43],"tags":[9042,9041,9044,102,9045,2960,9043,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-13513","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-healthcare","tag-children-s-health","tag-children-s-health-ireland-chi","tag-data-protection-commission","tag-health","tag-health-service-executive-hse","tag-healthcare","tag-tallaght-university-hospital","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13513","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13513"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13513\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13514"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13513"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13513"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13513"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}