Patients' COVID-19 Documents 'Improperly Discarded' By Ridgewood Hospital

RIDGEWOOD, NJ — Post-COVID-19 test instructions containing patients' personal information were "mistakenly discarded" in a recycling bin at one of The Valley Hospital's outpatient facilities, the Ridgewood hospital said last week.

The documents included the names of providers administering the COVID-19 test; and label with the patient names, medical record numbers, service dates and location codes for the patients' scheduled procedures, the hospital said.

Once the hospital learned of the privacy incident on Aug. 29, an investigation was immediately launched, as was a failed attempt to retrieve the "improperly discarded" documents, the hospital added.

"Although, to date, The Valley Hospital has no evidence that any of the instructions were actually subject to unauthorized access or acquisition, we cannot rule out that possibility," the hospital said.

Thus, "out of an abundance of caution," the hospital said, a breach notification was issued to all patients who were tested at the facility in question between June 1 and Sept. 1.

Based on the limited information involved, the patients tested are "unlikely to be at risk of identity theft or data misuse, and no further action on their part is needed," the hospital said.

The documents, the hospital added, did not include patient addresses, phone numbers, insurance identification numbers, Social Security numbers, positive or negative status, procedure type, or "any other information that constitutes protected health information."

In order to safeguard against similar incidents happening in the future, the hospital said, the regional healthcare system Valley Health developed "additional controls."