EMSA and the City of Tulsa are looking into a possible breach of patient confidentiality by the Tulsa Fire Department.
EMSA tells FOX23 that the Tulsa Fire Department released documents to the Tulsa World that contained patient names and private information, which EMSA says is a breach of Federal privacy law.
“We are HIPPA compliant and we have to guard the health information that we have from the patients and we have to be very protective of that and when someone breaches the system, we're responsible for the investigation to the federal government and some acknowledgement of it so it can't be done again."
The Tulsa World has not published an article including those names. A Tulsa Fire Department spokesperson tells us he was not aware of the allegation.
FOX23 submitted an open records request to the city regarding this matter, here is their response:
“The city will not respond to unsupported allegations. The City of Tulsa Legal Department normally reviews open records request that ask for electronic communications, in case certain records must be redacted pursuant to the Oklahoma Open Records Act and any other legal authority.
The law recognizes that certain records are exempt from disclosures and the City of Tulsa strives to balance citizen requests while upholding all legal requirements.”
