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ARTICLE · 28 OCTOBER 2024

Case study guide - Mishandling patient information is risky business

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Hypothetical scenarios based on published cases about privacy breaches from Australia and Canada.

AustraliaPrivacy
Ben Ryan
Ben Ryan
Marko Novakov
Marko Novakov
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This Case Study Guide is an addendum to our article dated XX 2024 entitled: Mishandling patient information is risky business: Proposed new changes to the Privacy Act to ensure effective information governance and privacy training. It contains hypothetical scenarios based on published cases about privacy breaches from Australia and Canada.

Scenario 1 - Intentional or Reckless Privacy Breach

Day Hospital DH is a private hospital and day surgery clinic. A group of employed hospital staff that have access to records about patients who had given birth at the hospital, disclose the personal and health information of those patients, without their authorisation or consent, to employees of private health and life insurers (who are looking to boost their sales). These hospital staff also disclose personal and health information of patients seeking treatment for work-related injuries (pursuant to workers' compensation legislation) to local personal injury law firms. The

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