Security breach at Atlanta VA hospital under investigation

By Craig Schneider

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

The U.S. Veterans Affairs Office of Inspector General has launched a criminal investigation into a security breach of veterans' medical information at the Atlanta Veterans Administration Medical Center, according to an internal document obtained by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

The inspector general is investigating a report that a physician assistant stored unauthorized clinical information on her personal laptop regarding veterans who were seen at one of the VA specialty clinics, according to the document.

The document said there are reportedly two sets of patient information involved -- one that includes more than 18 years of data, and another that includes up to three years of data.

The agency has yet to determine how many veterans are affected or the degree to which the data contained personal and medical information.

In late December, the physician assistant revealed to a VA nurse scientist that she had been recording clinical data from patient encounters on her personal laptop, the document said. The worker asked the nurse if she could use the data for "research purposes" not related to the VA.

The nurse replied that such work was not permitted and asked the worker to destroy the data.

"After multiple follow-up conversations and receiving no confirmation from the (physician's assistant) that she had destroyed the data, the nurse scientist notified the ... compliance officer of the issue on 2/8/10," the document said.

The physician assistant, hired in October of 2oo9, resigned effective Feb. 28.

The inspector general's office has reviewed the personal laptop and found multiple documents on the device "that appeared to have come from an unapproved research project."

Katie Roberts, the press secretary for the VA, confirmed the investigation.

"The results of the investigation and analysis will help determine whether to send notifications and offers of credit protection services to the affected veterans," Roberts said in a prepared statement.

She declined further comment, as did officials at the Atlanta VA Medical Center.