Belgrade Regional Health Center said Monday it’s notifying some patients about an error that resulted when letters sent to patients about a physician assistant who is leaving the practice included the name and address of another patient.
The health center said it’s unaware of “any attempted or actual misuse of the information inadvertently mailed,” but is notifying affected patients “so they make steps to protect their information should they feel it appropriate to do so.” The center mailed notification letters to affected patients Friday.
The letters notifying patients that the physician assistant was leaving the practice were mailed Oct. 21. Two days later, the health center discovered that the letters mistakenly contained both the name of the patient the letter was intended for and the name and address of another patient as well.
“This inadverdent inclusion indicated the patient other than the intended letter recipient had a treatment relationship with the departing physician assistant and the health center,” the press release said. The press release said the letter only contained the first and last name of the second patient and did not include other confidential information, such as Social Security number, insurance information, protected health information, financial account information or other identifying information.
“We take this incident, and patient privacy, very seriously,” Connie Coggins, CEO of HealthReach, said in the release.
The health center is urging patients affected to carefully review their credit report.
When the mistake was discovered, the health center launched an investigation “to determine the precise nature and scope of this incident.” The investigation found that the mistake happened because of a technical error in the mail merge process by the mailing vendor, the press release said.
Belgrade Regional Health Center is part of Waterville-based HealthReach Community Health Centers network, but the mistake did not affect the network’s 10 other health centers in central and western Maine.
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