Washington Health System

Washington Health System Greene Home care reported that on September 27, 2016, an employee emailed a patient census list to her personal home email account and provided that information to another home health agency, Harmony Home Care (HHC). The list contained the names and addresses of approximately 544 homecare patients. Following the breach, the CE immediately sent Attestations of Destruction and Return of Patient Information letters to HHC and the former employee. The CEO of HHC signed the attestation and returned the patient list indicating that 182 letters were returned as undeliverable. The former employee indicated that she had no copies of the patient list and did not send the list to anyone else. The CE closed operations on October 30, 2016. The CE provided breach notification to 530 affected individuals and to HHS. The CE also filed reports with both the Pennsylvania State Police and the Department of Health. OCR obtained assurances that the CE implemented the corrective actions listed.