Category: Uncategorized

OSHA: HERE IS HOW WE WANT MEDICAL WASTE MANAGED

OSHA: HERE IS HOW WE WANT MEDICAL WASTE MANAGEDIn 1991, the Occupational Health and Safety Administration (OSHA) declared the Occupational Exposure to Bloodborne Pathogens Standard to protect the more than 5 million healthcare workers in the healthcare industry. This was in a direct response to the danger these workers were being exposed to during the […]

Protected Health Information and The Ex Girlfriend

I received the call from one of our pain management clinics who had just received a call from an irate patient screaming profanities and accusing one of the staff of disclosing Protected Health Information (PHI) without authorization. So, I dug deeper and found out the whole story. An older female patient was being treated for […]

The Dumpster Dive for Bloody Gauzes and Vials of Medication

I received the call from a plastic surgeon that had an office in a medical building. They had just been visited by the county’s environmental health services department. The inspection was caused by someone noticing a bunch of bloody gauzes and several vials of medication in the building’s regular garbage dumpster shared by all. This […]

The Spill of the X-Ray Solutions and Unsafe Cleanup

A local dentist in California had switched from regular X-Ray to digital X-Ray and had some left-over X-Ray solutions (Fixer and Developer) in 1-gallon bottles that needed to be picked up. So, they called us to arrange for a pickup. We then dropped off 2 x 5-gallon containers, one for the fixer and one for […]

The Exposure Incident: Needle Stabbing the Dentist

A local dentist in California was giving a patient an anesthetic injection when something flew into the patient’s eyes.  Patient moved his head as an uncontrolled reflex and the needle came out of the patient’s mouth and stabbed the doctor in her thumb.  The worst new was that she had just aspirated blood into the […]

The Robbery: Thousands of Patient Charts Stolen

A local surgery practice with 8 surgeons had too many old/inactive charts and needed to find additional space for storage. Not knowing the HIPAA rules and regulations, they decided to purchase and build several storage sheds behind their building in the parking lot and store all their old charts there. Even though the sheds were […]

The Fiddler on the Roof

A local dentist had installed his compressor and vacuum system on the roof of his small office due to lack of space.  The only way to get to this compressor was through a small opening in the ceiling. Because of the inherent danger of climbing the ladder onto the roof through that small opening, the […]

The Server Bandit

A local dentist had her server stolen recently from her office in Emeryville California. Against our advice, the doctor had decided not to protect the server with an encryption software we asked her to have us install. This security software encrypts the entire server as soon as anyone unplugs the server from the electrical outlet […]