Bank runs out of patience over patients

Banks are good at keeping things private. Your money, your information, and so on — their whole purpose is to take care of your stuff and keep it yours and yours alone.

That is the one redeeming element out of this story in this morning’s Boston Herald.

Brigham sent bank new moms’ records

A world-renowned Hub hospital has been mistakenly faxing confidential patient information – including the results of tests for sexually transmitted diseases – to a Boston investment bank despite repeated attempts by the bank to stop it.

I’m constantly amazed by peoples reliance on technology. I work in a technology driven field, and I know how often we have problems with something that should be a no-brainer. That’s usually the problem, no brain is ever applied to the problem. I like the whole speed-dial idea, but didn’t it ever occur to anyone to check the number? At one of my previous residences I received monthly steel quotes from someone who thought they were dialing a company in California. This went on for two years! The poor guy called once a month while I was at work and left a long message on my answering machine about prices of steel. I called the number on my caller ID and left him messages, but the calls kept coming. You’d think after two years he’s have caught onto the fact that his prospective client wasn’t getting his calls. I moved before he caught on. I assume whoever got the phone number after me is now getting steel quotes too.

The real scary part of this is that nobody at the hospital seems to be solving the problem. What if this had been someone with less integrity than the woman at the bank? Somebody who knew something about identity theft could have done serious financial damage to these poor women and nobody would have had a clue how it was done. Even being told repeatedly there is a problem the hospital doesn’t seem to be able to deal with it. Apparently their solution is a no-brainer.