Metropolitan Government of Nashville and Davidson County (Metro) Public Health Department

The covered entity (CE), Metropolitan Government of Nashville and Davidson County Public Health Department, reported that on July 18, 2014, during the relocation of the Children's Special Services Clinic, two small metal filing units, holding standard sized paper index cards on patients seen in the CSS clinic, were inadvertently tipped over and the index cards fell out of the filing units. The index cards contained full names, addresses, dates of birth, social security numbers, and diagnosis codes of 1,717 patients. The CE provided breach notification to HHS, affected individuals, and the media, placed a conspicuous notice on its website, and offered credit monitoring and identity theft protection to all affected individuals. In response to the incident, the CE investigated, interviewed all relevant staff and the contractor’s employees, and reviewed surveillance recordings. As a result of its investigation, the CE eliminated the index card system, re-evaluated its process on retention and use of paper records, created and implemented additional HIPAA policies and procedures, and retrained staff. OCR obtained assurances that the CE implemented the corrective actions listed.