Medical forms of 19 people found on downtown Corner Brook street CORNER BROOK GARY KEAN The Western Star

Peter Simms in the area where he found personal medical forms from the flu assessment clinic. This image has been electronically altered to protect the private information contained in the documents. — Star photo by Gary Kean

Medical files from a flu clinic in Corner Brook were accidentally misplaced, and found on a road in the city last Friday.

While out for a walk late Friday afternoon afternoon, Peter Simms saw some pink papers in the snow on the Corner Brook Stream bridge that certainly stood out.

Sensing they might be important, the former Corner Brook resident who is home on vacation from Edmonton, stooped down and picked up the papers from the Main Street sidewalk.

Without his glasses on, Simms wasn’t sure what he was holding. His wife was with him and she quickly realized they were personal medical forms from Western Health.

Simms found 19 medical forms documenting visits by patients to Western Health’s temporary flu assessment clinic at the former Regina High School earlier that day.

The clinic is located a few hundred metres from where the papers were discovered.
Not sure where the documents had come from or what to do with them next, Simms brought them to The Western Star.

“If I had seen an RNC vehicle, I probably would have flagged it down and gave it to them,” said Simms.
“I never thought to look over the bridge to see if there were any more. I thought about it after, how windy it was and how some might have blown into the water.”

According to Western Health, the files were being transported by a medical staff member from the assessment clinic on foot when they accidentally fell from the bag in which they were being transported. The documents were relatively dry and had not even been splashed with slush from passing vehicles, but Simms never saw anyone in the area who might have lost the documents.

Western Health was unaware the documents were missing until contacted by The Western Star Monday morning. The health corporation said it then contacted the staff member who had noticed the files missing and was in the process of looking for them.

All of the documents, with the exception of one, were returned to the health authority around midday Monday. The lone exception was one patient contacted by The Western Star to see if she was aware of what had taken place and who asked for her document to be returned to her.

“I think that’s ridiculous,” said the woman, who asked not to be identified, and who said she would be looking into the incident personally.

Western Health began contacting all of the patients involved to explain the incident Monday afternoon.

Glenda Osmond was one of those who received what she called an unsettling phone call from Western Health.

“I’m not very happy,” said Osmond. “I’m very upset. It’s disturbing knowing our medical files were out there blowing in the wind. I’m grateful it was just a file from that day and not my full medical file because there are things in that file which are very private.
“Knowing that Western Health disappointed me in this way is very disturbing. It makes me wonder how good they look after your files when you are in the hospital.”

Unusual occurrence
Dr. Ken Jenkins, Western Health’s vice-president of medical services, said it is common for medical staff working outside Western Memorial Regional Hospital to transport medical files, sometimes even taking them home for billing purposes. He said Friday’s incident was a "simple accident,” though a troublesome one all the same.

“It’s always a concern when people’s personal information becomes unprotected,” said Jenkins. “That’s why we have measures in place to guard the privacy and security of people’s information.”

In addition to meeting with the particular medical staff involved, Western Health has sent out a letter to all physicians and staff, reminding them to be cautious when transporting and storing personal medical records such as those found on the street Friday afternoon. It was fortunate, said Jenkins, that all of the lost documents were found together and returned in a timely fashion.

“There has been, effectively, very limited exposure to the public in general because of those circumstances,” he said. “We appreciate that we were able to get the documents back so promptly.”

He hopes this incident does not shake the confidence of the general public in Western Health’s overall ability to protect personal information.

“It is a very unusual occurrence for us, if you consider the volume and numbers of health records we handle in the run of a year,” said Jenkins. “I know the medical staff member involved feels very sorry about the occurrence. We are reminding people now to be cautious about the transport and storage of health records. We think, with the measures in place and those reminders, we are confident recurrences are going to be very few.”