NurseWeek

Kaiser e-mails expose patient information

Wire Services
August 10, 2000


	You've read the article. Now tell us what you think. Related Sites Kaiser Permanente Electronic Privacy Information Center

Oakland, Calif. Hundreds of e-mails containing Kaiser Permanente patient information were mistakenly sent to the wrong people last week-a violation of patient confidentiality, according to Kaiser officials.

The glitch occurred on August 2 when a programming error at Kaiser's Maryland Web site server caused names, home phone numbers and sensitive medical information to be e-mailed to the wrong addresses.

The glitch affected 858 members before Kaiser's tech support team pulled the plug on the program.

Kaiser On-Line is a members-only service that lets users ask for medical and pharmaceutical advice and make appointments. About 250,000 of Kaiser's 8 million members are signed up for the service.

Most of the members affected by the computer error were from California. Kaiser officials said some members were angry, but "the vast majority have been gracious."

Read the full article