Data breach affects 121 SA Health patients
SA Health recently disclosed a cyber incident affecting Personify Care A third-party provider that provides digital patient pathways for their local healthcare network.
On October 16, Personify Care detected a vulnerability in the platform used by the Central Adelaide Local Health Network and the Southern Adelaide Local Health Network, which resulted in the deletion of folders containing the health information of 121 patients.
The affected folder also contained the names and phone numbers of 12,624 patients, which were used to invite them into the Personify Care platform.
SA Health reports: “There is no evidence that the affected documents were copied or downloaded, but the incident resulted in an unauthorized party deleting the contents of a folder used to store uploads by patients and staff using the Digital Patient Pathway some information.”
“This incident has not impacted the use of the platform by any other SA Health local health network,” it added.
SA Health further stressed that “the incident occurred outside the SA Health network and within a specific part of the infrastructure used by Personify Care.”
In a separate media statement, Personify Care CEO Ken Saman clarified: “The security of all other patient information entered into the system, including user credentials, was not compromised.”
“We also confirm that the situation has been resolved and the risk to patient information has been reduced.”
As for why the apparent hacker deleted the aforementioned patient information folder, Samman said, “Forensic analysis cannot confirm the identity or motives of the third party.”
Te Whatu Ora expands implementation of PowerHealth costing solution in South Island
Te Whatu Ora recently signed an agreement to further expand the implementation of PowerHealth clinical cost solutions in the South Island.
According to a media release, the expanded implementation of the web-based PowerPerformance Manager (PPM) aims to consolidate the region’s healthcare costing system by standardizing costing configurations according to the New Zealand Common Costing Standard.
It also seeks to “improve operational decision-making in health services and hospitals, [provide] Provide better data for health service benchmarking and provide a sound basis for inter-district mobility pricing by establishing consistency in costing and cost allocation within the health service sector [lift] Quality of cost reporting. “
The agreement was originally a cost tender conducted by the then Southern District Health Board in 2021. When New Zealand’s health system was reformed last year, a nationwide approach was adopted to plan and deliver services, so it was decided to expand the scope of services and adopt PPM island-wide.
Te Whatu Ora Canterbury and West Coast has been using PPM since 2003 to calculate hospital service delivery costs and provide comprehensive performance reporting.
NSW Health establishes new digital register of life-saving drugs
NSW Health has established a new register of life-saving medicines to simplify tracking of vital stocks in emergencies.
The digital register is updated daily and pinpoints the exact location of life-saving drugs to specific departments in NSW public hospitals, according to media reports. The drugs include those used to treat paracetamol overdose, snake and spider bites and heavy metal poisoning, including 31 antidotes and 10 antivenoms.
The new register, which can be accessed via mobile devices, replaces a web-based Excel spreadsheet that was updated every six months. It can also be linked to evidence-based guidelines to provide guidance to frontline health workers on the correct use of such medicines.
Healthscope launches latest e-booking solution from Genie Solutions
Healthscope, Australia’s only national private hospital operation and healthcare provider, has launched an electronic booking solution across its network of 38 hospitals.
Genie Solutions’ FHIR-based electronic appointment solution streamlines the flow of information between specialists and hospitals. Since the solution allows all procedure and patient information to be securely shared from Genie or Gentu directly to the hospital’s booking system, all important information is available ahead of the planned procedure. It also enables Healthscope Hospitals to instantly view theater bookings.