The data breach affected 121 SA Health patients
SA Health recently disclosed a cyber incident that affected Personify Care, the a third-party provider of digital patient pathways for its local health networks.
On October 16, Personify Care discovered a breach in its platform used by Central Adelaide Local Health Network and South Adelaide Local Health Network, which led to the deletion of a folder containing the health information of 121 patients.
The affected folder also included the name and phone number of 12,624 patients used to invite them to the Personify Care platform.
“No evidence was found that the affected documents had been copied or downloaded, but the incident resulted in an unauthorized party deleting the contents of a folder used to store some of the information uploaded by patients and staff using Digital Patient Pathways,” it reported SA Health.
“The incident has not affected the use of the platform in other SA Health local health networks,” he added.
SA Health further emphasized that “the incident occurred outside the SA Health network within a specific piece of infrastructure used by Personify Care.”
In a separate media statement, Personify Care CEO Ken Saman clarified, “The security of all other patient information entered into the system, including user credentials, was not compromised.”
“We have also confirmed that the situation has been resolved and the risk to patient information has been mitigated.”
As for why the apparent hackers deleted the said patient information folder, Saman shared that “forensic analysis cannot confirm the identity or motivation of the third party.”
Te Whatu Ora expands deployment of PowerHealth costing solution across the South Island
Te Whatu Ora recently signed a deal to further expand the deployment of a clinical costing solution from PowerHealth across the South Island.
Based on a media release, the expanded implementation of the web-based PowerPerformance Manager (PPM) aims to consolidate regional healthcare costing systems by standardizing costing configurations in line with New Zealand’s Common Costing Standards .
It also seeks to “improve operational decision-making within health services and hospitals, [provide] better data for benchmarking health services and a sound basis for cross-provincial flow pricing by creating consistency in costs and cost sharing across the health services sector and [lift] the quality of cost reporting.”
The agreement began as a costing tender by the then Southern District Health Board in 2021. When New Zealand’s health system was reformed last year, it adopted a country-wide approach to planning and delivering services, hence the decision to expand admissions of PPM for the entire island.
PPM, which calculates the cost of hospital service delivery and provides comprehensive performance reports, has been used by Te Whatu Ora Canterbury and West Coast since 2003.
NSW Health is building a new digital register of life-saving medicines
NSW Health has created a new Life-Saving Medicines Register to streamline the tracking of vital supplies for time-critical emergencies.
The digital register, according to a media release, is updated daily and pinpoints the exact location of life-saving drugs in specific NSW hospital wards. These medicines include those used to treat paracetamol overdose, snake and spider bites and heavy metal poisoning, including 31 antidotes and 10 anti-venoms.
The new registry, which is accessible via mobile devices, replaces a web-based Excel spreadsheet that is updated every six months. It was also given the opportunity to link to evidence-based guidelines to provide front-line health workers with guidance on the appropriate use of such drugs.
Healthscope Launches Genie Solutions’ Latest Electronic Booking Solution
Healthscope, Australia’s only national private hospital operator and healthcare provider, has introduced an e-booking solution across its network of 38 hospitals.
The FHIR-based electronic booking solution from Genie Solutions streamlines the information flow between specialists and hospitals. Because the solution allows all procedure and patient information to be securely shared from Genie or Gentu directly to the hospital’s reservation system, all essential information is provided prior to scheduled procedures. It also allows Healthscope hospitals to instantly see theater bookings.