HHS OCR breach portal (HIPAA breaches affecting 500 or more individuals) Primary notice
Posted on the HHS Office for Civil Rights breach portal with a submission date of June 14, 2013.
- Organization as reported
- Fayetteville VAMC, NC
- Entity type as reported
- Healthcare Provider
- Category as reported
Theft
- Location of information as reported
- Paper/Films
- Submission date
- June 14, 2013
- Observed by BreachRecords
- 2026-10-18 16:15 UTC (revision 15388, row:6527)
- Archived copy
- Held in the private archive (provenance)
The covered entity (CE), Fayetteville VA Medical Clinic Optical Shop, impermissibly disclosed the protected health information (PHI) of approximately 1,094 individuals by placing consultation reports in the recycling bin rather than the shred bin from January to April 2013. The PHI involved in the breach included patients’ names, social security numbers, birthdates, addresses, and phone numbers. The CE provided breach notification to HHS, the media, and all potentially affected patients and also offered credit monitoring. The CE investigated the incident, removed and shredded all identified documents from the recycle bin, and provided a document shredder on-site. Additionally, the CE retrained employees regarding security and disposal methods for documents containing PHI. Moreover, the responsible staff member was sanctioned according to the CE’s policy. OCR obtained assurances that the corrective actions listed above were completed.