Every cloud...
At least the waste disposal procedures are efficient.
Bungling hospital staff accidentally destroyed patient data after a worker put 10,000 records in the wrong room, an investigation by the Information Commissioner's Office [ICO] revealed today. The lost records were boxed up and put in a ward waste disposal room because there wasn't enough space in the proper storage room, the …
Why not swap out the filing cabinets for a scanner and an old machine with a big hard-drive?
Bolt everything to the floor, disconnect the usb sockets, dont bother with a network connection and you wont have any problems with the data going walkies!
Next time you run out of space, just buy a bigger hard-drive, copy the old data across and swap out the old disk, once you have checked you have copied all the data over you should then take a standard steel drill and put a hole through the old drive casing & platters.
Data security is only as complicated as you make it.
"take a standard steel drill and put a hole through the old drive casing & platters."
Although this would in my opinion destroy the data beyond retrieval , It wouldnt meet current standards. Mainly because you you didnt pay through the nose to have someone else do it - the difference being that person has a government EEE certificate.
I think they shred the drives , then feed them to shark with a frikkin laser on its head , that is then sent out sea 10 miles and detonated. This ensures safe data destruction.
...is the ever broadening criteria for what has to be kept and for how long.
Here in Australia, it's now necessary to retain documentation on kids for up to 21 years, medical , childcare, schooling, anything "official".
@Alan F
Hmm, 9/11, 2001 perhaps? Routine site access logs once held for 3 months suddenly shifting to 7 years plus retention alone could do it? Rinse repeat for OR swab logs; A budget cut which slowed down the process of moving records to microfiche?
Require managers to have licences to manage hospitals or any public service even if outsourced.
Stick a point on each managers licence down the path when the data was lost - no excuses - data is lost you get a point minimum.
Twelve points and you lose the right to work for any public service for N years. We already force builders, gas, leccies and drivers etc. to carry cards why not public officials we supposedly trust with our deepest medical details?
The above scheme also provides more incentive for higher ups to ensure those below follow the rules as they will collect points faster if they dont have good crontol of staff below them.
Oh, this only applies to managers so no cards for cleaners, secretaries, nurses etc :-)
At least things are getting better.
Back in 1980 I was seriously injured while on holiday. The hospital asked for the name and address of my GP so they could send on all the records when I was discharged. On consulting my GP a short while afterwards I found that he had no record of my injuries. He contacted the hospital and it turned out that they had, for some reason posted the records to the wrong address. He asked for them to send another copy, but it turned out they had posted the originals without keeping a copy. The address they had used did not exist, they seemed to have mix up two addresses. So the odds are that my records sat in a dead letter office for a while and were then destroyed.
No backup copies. Posting originals. Not bothering with recorded or tracked delivery for important original documents. Can you imagine what the ICO would make of that today?
The records weren't accidently destroyed, they were deliberately destroyed. They had been placed in the waste room, therefore, they were declared to be waste. The waste room operatives therefore duely accepted this waste and destroyed it.
If it's not destined for the bin, don't put it in a bin bag, as I said to somebody years ago who lost most of their clothes that way.