PRIVACY NOTIFICATION – IMAGING STUDIES THEFT
On August 19, 2011 Anna Jaques Hospital (AJH) discovered that a small quantity of imaging studies had been taken from our hospital by an unauthorized individual posing as an employee of a company AJH uses for the removal and recycling of imaging study films. The discarded imaging studies were from patient visits that took place between April and August of 2011. Police report that the imaging studies were taken for the street value of the silver contained in the film.
Staff members discovered the theft and immediately reported it to hospital security who contacted Newburyport police, who then conducted an investigation with other law enforcement authorities. Two suspects have been arraigned on charges in connection with this incident.
32,605 patient exams were conducted at AJH between April and August of 2011. If you had an imaging study at Anna Jaques during that time period, and if your image was discarded at that time, the odds that your image was in the recycling barrel are 1 in 445, or less than ½ of 1 percent. AJH is a digital imaging center and very few images are printed as they can be sent to physicians and other hospitals electronically.
Officials do not believe that obtaining patient information printed on the imaging studies was the motive for the theft. However, the imaging studies did include each patient's full name, age, date of birth, medical record number, and the date the x-ray was taken. No financial information, home addresses, phone numbers, Social Security numbers or other information were included on the imaging studies. The theft of imaging studies occurred in August and September at a number of medical facilities along the East Coast, several in the Merrimack Valley and Boston, and Anna Jaques.
AJH remains committed to protecting patient health information. We are notifying any potentially affected patients through this notice.
If you have any questions or concerns, please call Anna Jaques Hospital at 855-228-7339 or send your written inquiry to Privacy Officer, Anna Jaques Hospital, 25 Highland Avenue, Newburyport, MA. 01950. Please include your phone number in your letter so that we may contact you.
Here is a description of the imaging recycling process from our HIPAA compliant vendor, Evolve.
"All scrap film received from Anna Jaques is 100% recycled. Nothing goes to the landfill. When the film is picked up from the hospital it is loaded into sealed containers for shipment to the refiner. The seal remains intact until the container is ready for processing. At the refiner the film is loaded into 1,150 pound enzyme washing baths. The silver emulsion and any image on the film are washed from the plastic base. The plastic base of the film is then shredded and washed. The silver is separated from the enzyme washing solution and dried in a furnace. The silver ash is then refined back to .999 fine silver ingots and sold back to the manufacturing industry."