Question

90 Who Stole the X-Rays? Dale Buchbinder You are the CEO at Immaculata Medical Center (IMC) in a large urban city. It is Monday morning, and you have just been informed by the manager of the Radiology Department that some unknown person came on Saturday pre- tending to be a member of the company that disposes of outdated X-rays. One of the security guards directed this individual to the area where the old X-rays were stored Over a six-hour time period several thousand X-rays dated between 1998 and 2004 were removed from IMC, placed in a blue pickup truck, and driven off the property. It has now come to your attention that many of the X-rays had not only the patient names, but also their Social Security numbers imprinted on the X-rays. The Social Security number had been used as the hospital medical record number for many patients during that time, and the records for these patients, including these X-rays, had not been altered to protect their identities. There are two possible reasons for stealing the X-rays. First, these films were created before the digital era and the siver used in processing the X-rays can be retrieved and Second, these films contain personal information that could be used in identity theft. The Chief of Security has reviewed video footage from the hallway and the person removing the he did get front entrance to the hospital. He reports to you that the X-rays was extremely careful to avoid most of the cameras; how one view of his face, which he was able to send to the police. The camera also cap tured multiple vicws of a scurity officerhelping this person remove the Xrys. You meet with your executive staff and decide on an action plan. The patients and the media must be alerted that identities could have been stolen. You have 323

Answer 1

1. The facts in this case are :-

- A person who don't had any identity or credentials came and took all the X-ray from the hospital

- Hospital security helped him to take away the X-RAY

- In the surveillance camera ,theft face is captured

- There was no pre intimation about disposal of X-RAY.

2. The action which the hospital should take to protect the individuals whose identitiea have been compromised is to ensure the patients that there would no breech of confidentiality related to their health data and the hospital is taking actions to lock the health records related to these patients who else X-RAYS are taken away by the theft .

3. Yes ,the hospital has the duty to cover any losses sustained by the patient due to this theft because it's from the hospital the theft has taken place and it can lead to breech of health information of the patients . The hospital has the right to action against this theft and take actions necessary to avoid breech of confidentiality .

4. According to me ,the termination of the security is not appropriate as before the security helps him to take the X-RAYS , the unknown person has taken permission from the technician to take the X-RAYS, the technicians must have checked his the outside persons identity before telling the security to help him . And also it's a miss from the security that he have not checked the identity or any credentials about the person who came for disposal of X- ray .