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Wednesday, April 5, 2017 The Nugget Newspaper, Sisters, Oregon
St. Charles discovers
privacy violation
St. Charles Health System
has discovered that a care-
giver accessed nearly 2,500
patients’ electronic medical
records without authorization.
The caregiver said in an
interview that she looked at
the files out of curiosity. She
has since signed an affidavit
stating that she has never used
or shared any of the confiden-
tial patient information for the
purpose of committing fraud,
financial crimes or other
crimes against the patients
whose records were among
those she viewed.
On January 16, the health
system launched an inves-
tigation and conducted an
audit of all of the patient
files accessed by the care-
giver. The audit revealed that
between October 8, 2014,
and January 16, 2017, the
caregiver may have reviewed
as many as 2,459 files con-
taining patients’ names,
addresses, dates of birth,
health insurance information,
driver’s license numbers and
health information such as
diagnoses, physicians’ names,
medications and treatment
information.
“We sincerely apologize
to our patients who may have
been affected by this inci-
dent,” said Nicole Hough,
vice president of compliance.
“We want to provide them
with the information they
need to understand what hap-
pened and what they can do to
guard against possible fraud.”
The health system mailed
a letter today to those patients
who are impacted. The letter
includes an explanation of the
incident and an offer of credit
monitoring and identity res-
toration services, as well as
additional information about
how individuals can protect
themselves. St. Charles is
also in the process of notify-
ing state and federal regula-
tors about the incident.
“St. Charles takes the
privacy and security of our
patients’ personal health
information very seriously.
We regard the protection of
all patient information as part
of our commitment to provid-
ing excellent care,” Hough
said. “The health system is
doing everything possible
to prevent a similar privacy
breach from occurring in the
future, including implement-
ing additional medical record
audits.”
Individuals are encour-
aged to remain vigilant
against incidents of identity
theft and fraud, to review
their account statements and
to monitor their credit reports
for suspicious activity. A con-
fidential call center has also
been established to answer
questions about this incident.
The call center phone num-
ber is 1-855-836-0069 and
is available Monday through
Saturday, 9 a.m. to 9 p.m.
EST.
Judge: Four in standoff guilty
PORTLAND (AP) — A
federal judge in Oregon found
four men guilty Tuesday of
misdemeanor counts of tres-
passing and tampering with
government vehicles and
equipment during last year’s
high-profile takeover of a
wildlife refuge after a bench
trial that was overshadowed
by the conviction of the same
men by a jury on more seri-
ous felony charges.
U.S. District Judge Anna
Brown found defendants
Jason Patrick, Darryl Thorn,
Duane Ehmer and Jake Ryan
guilty of the lesser crimes
11 days after the men were
convicted by a Portland jury
of charges ranging from
conspiracy to possession of
firearms in a federal facility.
Patrick was also found guilty
of destruction and removal of
property on Tuesday.
Early in the trial proceed-
ings, Brown separated the
misdemeanors from the felo-
nies and pegged them for a
bench trial over the objec-
tions of the defense, who felt
allowing the jury — and not
the judge — to consider the
lesser charges would have
helped their clients.
Patrick, who was part of
the initial group that seized
the refuge in remote south-
eastern Oregon, has said he
will appeal the case.
They all face years in
prison at a sentencing hearing
set for next month.
Thorn, Ehmer and Ryan
remain free while awaiting
sentencing but Patrick chose
to turn himself in Tuesday.
The outcome for these
four men is sharply different
from their fellow occupiers,
who were tried in the same
court last fall.
Brothers Ammon and
Ryan Bundy and five oth-
ers were acquitted of con-
spiracy charges by a differ-
ent jury in a verdict that was
seen as a major upset of the
prosecution.
But the U.S. attorney’s
office refused to dismiss
charges against the sec-
ond round of lesser-known
defendants.
Dozens of people occu-
pied the refuge from Jan. 2 to
Feb. 11, 2016 to show support
for two Oregon ranchers who
were imprisoned for setting
fires on federal rangeland.
The defendants said their
takeover was a constitution-
ally protected protest against
federal control of public
lands in the western U.S.
The armed crowd was
allowed to come and go for
several weeks as authorities
tried to avoid bloodshed seen
in past standoffs at Waco,
Texas, and Ruby Ridge,
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Prosecutors argued in both
cases that the defendants had
conspired to overrun the ref-
uge and occupy it — and in
doing so, they had prevented
federal workers from doing
their jobs there.
The Bundys and other key
figures were arrested in a Jan.
26, 2016 traffic stop outside
the refuge that ended when
police fatally shot occupation
spokesman Robert “LaVoy”
Finicum. Most occupiers of
the refuge left shortly after
Finicum’s death, including
the four defendants in the
current trial, but a few hold-
outs remained for a few more
weeks before surrendering.
A total of 26 people were
indicted on the conspiracy
charge.
In addition to the 11 who
appeared in the two trials, 14
pleaded guilty and charges
were dropped against one
man.
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