Client Confidentiality and Why records Management Matters

It was reported in the Irish Times on the 1^st of May 2008 that a quantity of confidential patient records were found in a landfill during recent rail works in County Cork. The files date from the early 1980’s and contain sensitive personal and medical data on patients treated at Cork Regional Hospital (now Cork University Hospital) and St. Finbarr’s Hospital. Investigations are underway to discover why these files were not confidentially destroyed.

This scandal, following closely on the heels of data loss on the parts of Bank of Ireland and the Blood Transfusion Board, is a pointed reminder that few organisations in Ireland have given due care and consideration to their records. It is particularly worrying in the case of sensitive or confidential data about living persons. Ideally, all organisations should have a records management system in place to avoid similar mishaps.

It does not take an investigation to establish that with a proper records management system in place that allows for the secure destruction of records, the kind of mishaps described above would never happen.