SPRINGFIELD, Mass. (WWLP) – You’d like to think your medical records are safe but the 22News I-Team discovered today a number of personal documents left in a dumpster for anyone to see.
We took the files out, brought them to management, and got some answers.
“As I was going through the stuff I saw files and they looked like medical files,” said Springfield’s Bryant Longey.
Longey says he stumbled upon this dumpster out on a walk this weekend, when he noticed dozens of personal files.
“I said wow, this can’t be right, these should be burned or shredded or something.”
He found the files came from the Behavioral Health Network in Springfield, a service both he and his mom utilize.
“My privacy, it could be invaded like all these other folks,” said Carol Roberts.
That’s when they contacted the 22News I-Team.
We took the files from them and went back to the dumpster where we discovered even more records.
That’s when we took them inside to BHN management to get some answers.
We explained and they seemed surprised by what I was holding.
“Thank you very much, I certainly appreciate you bringing it to our attention, that is absolutely against policy and we’ll need to do an investigation to figure out how that happened.” said BHN Vice President Candace Darcy.
We handed the files over and brought them to the dumpster so they could get the rest.
Darcy says this shouldn’t happened because they pay to get records shredded.
“They come in and shred documents right on the premises before they take it away so confidentiality is guaranteed. I have no idea how this could’ve happened and we’ll certainly check into it and make sure it doesn’t happen again.”
It’s important to note 22News doesn’t have any files in our possession.
They were all returned and we will be following up to see this problem is resolved for your protection.
Article Sourced From: http://www.wwlp.com/dpp/news/i_team/medical-records-discovered-in-dumpster