Over a million records subject to patient healthcare data breaches

We’re halfway through 2018, and a recent study has suggested that over a million records have been subject to patient healthcare data breaches so far; and that was actually in the first quarter of the year.

The data released last month perhaps highlights the extent of patient healthcare data breaches and how common they are, which in turn goes to show why so many people come forward to claim for medical data breach compensation.

Other findings in the studies also highlighted a number of common problems we’re already aware of as a firm of lawyers who fight for the rights of data breach victims.

Over a million so far – that’s a huge number…

According to the data released, there were huge trends of healthcare workers snooping on the records of people they know. The UK’s Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) has recently pursued a number of individual cases where healthcare workers have snooped on their family members, partners, neighbours and even co-workers.

The volume of these incidents has prompted specific warnings from the regulator to healthcare staff that they must – at all times – adhere to important data protection legislation. There have been horror stories from around the world where healthcare workers have snooped on patient records for years before getting caught.

Perhaps just as worrying is that the data indicated that, once a healthcare worker has committed one patient privacy breach, there is a more than 20% chance that they will commit such a breach again in a matter of months, with more than half likely to commit another breach within a year. This highlights the accumulative risk of employees continually committing patient healthcare data breaches, and this must be stopped.

Further data indicated that it could take many healthcare organisations more than eight months to detect a healthcare breach after it has occurred.

Although the volume of insider incidents was a particular focus of the results released, the progressing trend of ransomware attacks, like the massive WannaCry incident we witnessed last year, remain an ongoing and evolving threat. Hacking incidents have led to hundreds of thousands of patient healthcare data breaches, and without proper training and protocols, it can be hard for staff to not fall for them.

What you can do about patient healthcare data breaches?

If you have been the victim of a healthcare data breach, you may be entitled to compensation.

We help and advise a lot of people for healthcare sector-related incidents because they can be unfortunately common. Given the fact that the data breached in these types of incidents is often very personal and sensitive, people should come forward for legal help if they would like to with the knowledge that the power to claim is there.

Feel free to contact us if you need our help.

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