There have been news reports today about a privacy incident involving pagers at UHN.
A freelance reporter informed us recently that a community source, with specific computer software, was able to capture certain pager transmissions from UHN and other hospitals.
While most UHN pagers are numeric, there are certain UHN pagers capable of transmitting and receiving messages urgent to patient care which may contain information such as a patient's name, hospital location, test result or discharge status.
We immediately requested – and received – a copy of the intercepted files, and, as required by law, are notifying affected patients. Our estimates are that about 200 patients may be affected.
In addition, we have: notified and are working with the Information and Privacy Commissioner of Ontario (IPC) on next steps and have turned off the pager feeds that can relay identifiable personal health information such as patient name.
UHN takes patient privacy very seriously, and we are working quickly and carefully to make sure this issue is resolved.
Should patients have any questions, please contact the UHN Privacy Office at 416-340-4800, ext. 6937.
