Fine issued for Calgary lab assistant who inappropriately accessed health info
By Gillian Slade on January 23, 2019.
Medicine Hat News A lab assistant at Calgary Laboratory Services pleaded guilty to accessing health information in violation of theHealth Information Act. Employee Alaa Hammoud inappropriately accessed health records of 11 people in Alberta between July 18, 2016 and September 5, 2017. Hammoud accessed the information in Chestermere and Calgary and has been fined $3,500 fine, according to a press release. The inappropriate breach of access to health information was first discovered by Hammoud’s employer during a routine audit of who had been accessing the electronic health record system. This was reported to the Office of the Information and Privacy Commissioner. People affected by the breach were notified. Four people whose health information had been breached submitted complaints to the OIPC. The OIPC also opened an offence investigation and submitted its findings to Crown prosecutors at Alberta Justice, which resulted in charges being laid in August 2018. It is an offence under Health Information Act to knowingly gain or attempt to gain access to health information in contravention of the Act (section 107(2)(b)). This was the 10th conviction under the act. 11-10
