PHI found: Mount Sinai, a hospital system with branches throughout New York City and Long Island had a potential HIPAA breach earlier this month after patient records were found in the trash at their Mount Sinai Beth Israel Senior Health Center in Chelsea, Manhattan.

An office manager from Mount Sinai who was contacted in an investigation by NBC New York, saying that “We don’t dispose of medical waste in the garbage, we have a dedicated recycling bin. We dispose of it in a proper way, we have a company that picks up all of our material.”

The hospital also released an official statement regarding the Beth Israel Senior Health HIPAA Breach, saying that “When documents containing PHI are discarded, they are to be placed in locked bins and then shredded. […] Unfortunately, our procedures were not followed at our Senior Health Center location. We see this as an isolated incident and have instituted procedures to prevent this from ever happening again.”

Check out the video from NBC below for more details.

