Dayton VA medical center inappropriately shared veteran's medical information

Air Force veteran can't get answers about medical records
Dayton (Ohio) Daily News
By Josh Sweigart
Published: April 2, 2014

When Air Force veteran Janet Jennings received notice in the mail last week that someone at the Dayton VA medical center had inappropriately shared her medical information, the news came with an apology.

But what Jennings can’t get is an explanation.

She called the local Department of Veterans Affairs phone number listed on the letter, but instead of telling her what happened, an “employee did not treat Ms. Jennings with the respect she deserves,” the VA admitted in a statement after Jennings called the I-Team.

“I don’t understand why they would not tell me who my information has been released to,” Jennings said in an interview in her Fairborn home.

“Was it released to a finance company, a medical company, somebody walking down the hall?”

This adds to a string of embarrassing cases of patients’ private medical information ending up in the wrong hands. Other issues in recent years included a stash of medical records found in a Centerville attic, and veterans receiving the wrong records in the mail.

VA officials tell the I-Team that the latest incident was isolated to Jennings and one other patient.

“In Ms. Jennings’ case, one page of her medical record was unredacted, leaving her name, date of birth, telephone number, and diagnosis visible. Her Social Security number was not included,” VA spokesman Ted Froats wrote in a statement.

The employee responsible is facing “significant administrative action,” Froats said.

The employee who was rude to Jennings has since retired from the VA, he said.
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