Australian hospital sends medical records to wrong person

Australian hospital sends medical records to wrong person

An Australian hospital is under investigation after sending a psychiatric patient's confidential medical records to the wrong person.

The documents -- wrongly included in a Freedom of Information response provided to another mental health patient -- detail extremely sensitive medical records of a woman with schizophrenia living in the same region.

Privacy Victoria and the Victorian Ombudsman have been notified of the breach and Health Services Commissioner Beth Wilson has confirmed she is investigating an incident of psychiatric records going to the wrong person.

But the woman who received the files said she was outraged by the careless record-keeping and worried her records could fall into the wrong hands.

She has visited the patient named in the files to inform her of the incident and both have lodged complaints with authorities.

Outrage over psychiatric patient's files mix-up (Herald Sun, 15 February 2008)