Mayo Clinic clients’ data was accessed by a former employee

A former employee has compromised more than 1600 patient records. Mayo Clinic clients’ data was accessed by a former employee who seemed to have none of it misused.

Social Security numbers, bank account numbers and payment card information weren't targeted or at least weren’t viewed. The clinic didn’t see any of the healthcare data printed or copied and shared, although the ex-staffer did read such information as names, demographic data, dates of birth, patient status notes, even medical images, numbers of records comprising diagnosis and other accompanying details.

The FBI and the Rochester Police Department were notified about the privacy breach.

Looking patient records up is a known serious issue, employees frequently access patients data in order to learn something especially if it is a famous person or is related to a scandal, for example, this year five employees from a medical center of Minneapolis were fired for reading George Floyd’s records, and in 2008 13 staffers were dismissed for accessing medical records of Britney Spears, according to Startribune.