UC Davis Admits To Mistakenly Sending 10 Patients' Records To Sacramento Mom
SACRAMENTO (CBS13) - A Sacramento Hospital now admits it made a mistake sending medical records of 10 patients to a stranger; but the woman who received the papers says sorry isn't enough.
"I think they'd like it just to go away," said Sheilla Rush.
She waited more than 24 hours for UC Davis Medical Center to admit the hospital messed up.
"They know, they know what they're doing; and, to me, this is just, it's ridiculous," said Rush.
On Thursday, Rush received her daughter's blood test results in the mail, along with the results of 10 other patients.
"They've got their address, their names, all kinds of very personal private information, whether the tests come out positive or negative," Rush told CBS13 Thursday.
Since then, CBS13 has emailed and made calls to the hospital's spokesperson, and waited for a response to how this could've happened.
After spokesperson Phyllis Brown told CBS13 nobody would be available for an on-camera interview, she released a statement.
In part, it read, "We sincerely apologize for the breach of patient confidentiality that has occurred..." and "...all patients involved in this matter were contacted by telephone today."
A mother of one of those patients, who wished to remain anonymous, says the hospital called her Friday to ask if she'd received her son's test results, but never mentioned they'd mistakenly sent the results to a stranger.
She says she had no idea of the mishap until we told her, but would have wanted to hear it from UC Davis.
"I'm sure if they didn't tell me, they didn't tell the other parents," she said.
That's exactly what Rush was afraid of, if she hadn't pushed for answers.
"Where's the trust here?" the mother asked.
"I honestly believe every parent has the right to know and that's what I'd like to see happen," said Rush.
UC Davis still does not know how this could have happened.
Statement from UC Davis:
"We sincerely apologize for the breach of patient confidentiality that has occurred. UC Davis Health System has robust safeguards in place to assure the privacy of all of its patients. If a breach occurs, the health system has rigorous processes in place to respond and address them. Any patient whose privacy has been compromised is immediately contacted and informed of the incident. Consistent with this policy, all patients involved in this matter were contacted by telephone today. In accordance with state and federal mandates uc davis health system will report the incident to the appropriate agencies."
-Spokesperson Phyllis Brown
