Geisinger hospital employee unnecessarily accessed 800 patient records: 4 details

An employee at Geisinger Wyoming Valley Medical Center in Wilkes-Barre, Pa., accessed hundreds of patients' records unnecessarily over a nearly three-year timeframe.

Four things to know:

1. Geisinger discovered on March 20 that an employee had accessed patient records from July 2017 to March 2020 without a business need.

2. The employee had access to medical records as part of their daily job, but also accessed around 800 patients' records unnecessarily, an investigation confirmed.

3. While the investigators have not found evidence that the employee used the information for malicious purposes, that employee did have access to patient names, birth dates, Social Security numbers, medications and diagnoses.

4. After conducting the investigation, Geisinger reported that the individual is no longer employed at the health system.

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