1 in 3 hospitals deal with private medical data incorrectly

SPAIN (Agencies) A study carried out by the Spanish Data Protection Agency reports that one of every three hospitals in the country does not follow the Data Protection laws correctly. The study requested information from 605 hospitals, of which 562 replied in time (294 private and 268 públic). The remaining 43, are subject to fines ranging from €60,000 to €300,000. The main conclusion was that security measures have not been properly established, including incorrect data handling procedures. The study and consequent corrections are being carried out as a result of several incidents classified as 'alarming' by the agency's Director, Artami Rallo. These include finding untreated data placed in rubbish containers, finding private medical information on P2P Internet sites, of which 123 such cases were reported in 2009 and 100 so far this year.