The federal government's patient privacy laws, known in the health care community as HIPPA, were violated by a Naugatuck Valley Community College instructor who used x-rays from patients of St. Mary's Hospital in Waterbury, according to the hospital's chief medical officer.
"It did happen," said Dr. Steve Holland. "And we're making every effort to stop it and make sure it doesn't happen again."
Holland said the instructor had been using patients' x-ray images with the patients' names attached since at least 2009. He said it was an inadvertent mistake and the instructor felt terrible about it.
"Unfortunately, some of the images still maintained a name on the software and so it was linked, linking a name to the image," Dr. Holland said.
There was no other patient history or doctor's note attached, he said, just information relating to the image.
Naugatuck Valley Community College issued a statement saying it "takes seriously this and all other privacy issues it encounters while teaching students and partnering with local businesses or other entities. Because this is an open matter with the Health and Human Services agency, it would be inappropriate to comment further at this time."
The students had agreed not to violate the patient privacy laws, according to Dr. Holland. A student who failed the radiology tech course thought the instructor was breaking those laws and blew the whistle, according to Ctwatchdog.com.
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If St. Mary's is ordered by the Department of Health and Human Services Office of Civil Rights to contact the patients involved, the hospital will, said Dr. Holland.
