A former employee at Alberta Children's Hospital inappropriately accessed the personal health information of 247 patients and officials are in the process of notifying the families of those affected.

Officials say the breaches were first noticed during an audit of the Netcare patient record system, which showed patient records were being inappropriately accessed by one staff member over a 14-month period.

An audit of a second database, called Clinibase, was conducted and further breaches by the same staff member were discovered.

Officials say the information that may have been accessed includes; patient history, contact information, date of birth, names of relatives, and emergency contact information.

AHS launched an investigation and says it is in the process of notifying those patients affected and their families about the privacy breaches.

“I want to apologize to all patients whose privacy has been breached. AHS takes the privacy and confidentiality of patient information seriously, so I find this lapse intolerable,” says Vickie Kaminski, President and CEO. “While the incident did not impact patient care, or the integrity of patient records, any breach is inexcusable. I want to assure Albertans that we take our role as protector of health information very seriously, and will take appropriate action to reduce the chance of this happening again.”

AHS says the staff member no longer works there and that it will work with staff at the site to ensure they have the appropriate training and will continue to audit health information.