‘Snooping’ by U of A hospital secretary illustrates ‘alarming trend,’ says Alta. privacy commissioner

A former University of Alberta Hospital employee using her access to look at personal health records signals a larger concern of Alberta’s information and privacy commissioner about “snooping.”

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According to the Office of the Information and Privacy Commissioner of Alberta, which released a statement about the case on Thursday, medical secretary Kayla Satre recently pleaded guilty to unauthorized disclosure of health information and was fined $2,000 by the Edmonton Court of Justice.

She had originally been charged under the Health Information Act for accessing without authorization in 2020 the health records of 17 people, some of whom she had “known relationships” with. She was also charged with disclosing information about two people, including infectious disease information which resulted in one person being harassed. However, the Crown agreed to not prosecute the latter charge when she pleaded guilty to the first, the office said.

On Thursday, Alberta’s privacy commissioner Diane McLeod said the case demonstrates “the law is not structured in such a way to effectively deter snooping.”

In her last annual report, released in November, McLeod called such snooping an “alarming trend.” In the previous two years, her office had investigated 14 potential breaches of the Health Information Act, although hundreds were reported.

She has recommended her office be empowered to hand out fines for violations of the Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy, Personal Information Protection and Health Information Acts, given current resource challenges in the legal system and believing that monetary penalties would better deter such violations.

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She also has recommended “very sensitive” information, such as the infection disease information shared by Satre be hidden or made unavailable except to a limited number of authorized professionals.

CTV News Edmonton requested comment from the provincial government on the commissioner’s concerns and recommendations.