Patient records found at dump

Thousands of Boston area patients may need to worry about the location of their paper medical records. A Boston Globe photographer found piles of intact hospital and insurance records from at least four different hospitals at a public dump. These documents should have been either shredded or incinerated, and contained names and addresses of patients as well as results of cancer tests and lab work information. 

"Doctors with two of the hospitals–Kevin Dole of Caritas Carney and John Blanchette of Holyoke Medical Center–both said they used the same billing company–Goldthwait Associates, which would have been responsible for getting rid of the physical records. Goldthwait also provides billing services for the two other known hospitals involved, Milton Hospital and Milford Regional Medical Center."

Hospital officials believe the records dumped date back two to three years; they are currently determining which patients underwent pathology testing. Milton Hospital expects to notify between 8,000 and 12,000 patients, which Holyoke expects to notify twice that number. 

No ruling has been made yet to determine if the hospitals, the doctors, or the billing company are ultimately responsible for this incident. 

Read the full story: http://www.fiercehealthcare.com/story/patient-records-found-dump/2010-08-13

What happens to your paper records and how does your billing company handle them?