Former Alberta Children's hospital employee fined for breach of patient information

A Calgary woman who used to work in data entry at the Alberta Children's hospital has pleaded guilty to illegally accessing patient files.

Judy Anderson admitted to looking up the health information of 26 people between Nov. 7, 2013, and March 31, 2014.

The unauthorized accesses were discovered in April 2014 during a database audit that included Alberta Netcare, the provincial electronic health record system.

The Office of the Information and Privacy Commissioner was contacted.

It says Anderson worked at the Alberta Children's Hospital in Calgary entering and confirming data of newborns with congenital anomalies.

The Office of the Information and Privacy Commissioner says she looked up the files of adults who shared her last name as well as other patients who had no connection to her program.

Anderson was fined $5,000 by a provincial court judge on Sept. 21.

This was the fifth time a conviction has been made since the Health Information Act came into effect in 2001.

Two other matters of people accessing health information are still before the courts.

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