New England Dermatology improperly disposed of specimens for a decade, affecting 58,000

Springfield, Mass.-based New England Dermatology and Laser Center improperly disposed of empty patient specimen bottles, which contained patients’ protected health information, for more than a decade, according to a May article by MassLive.

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Hannah Mitchell

Four details:

  1. The empty specimen bottles contained PHI, including patients’ names, birthdates and the area of the body the specimen was taken from.
  2. The Massachusetts healthcare provider was disposing of the specimen bottles with its regular trash instead of shredding them or incinerating them from Feb. 4, 2011, to March 31, 2021.
  3. The data breach exposed 58,106 patients’ PHI over 10 years.
  4. Since the breach was discovered, the healthcare provider has updated its waste disposal policies to prevent a similar event from happening again.

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