Hacker deletes data of 121 SA Health patients and more briefs

Data breach affected 121 SA Health patients 

SA Health has recently disclosed a cyber incident that affected Personify Care, the third-party provider of digital patient pathways for its local health networks.

On 16 October, Personify Care detected a breach on its platform used at Central Adelaide Local Health Network and Southern Adelaide Local Health Network, which led to a folder containing the health information of 121 patients getting deleted. 

The affected folder also included the name and phone number of 12,624 patients used to invite them onto the Personify Care platform. 

“No evidence has been found that affected documents were copied or downloaded, but the incident resulted in an unauthorised party deleting the contents of a folder used to store some information uploaded by patients and staff using Digital Patient Pathways,” SA Health reported.

“The incident did not affect the use of the platform at any other SA Health Local Health Networks,” it added.

SA Health further emphasised that “the incident occurred outside the SA Health network within a specific part of the infrastructure used by Personify Care.”

In a separate media statement, Personify Care chief executive Ken Saman clarified: “The security of all other patient information entered into the system, including user credentials, have not been compromised.”

“We have also confirmed the situation has been resolved, and the risk to patient information has been mitigated.”

As for the reason why the apparent hackers deleted the said folder of patient information, Saman shared that “the forensic analysis could not confirm the identity or motivation of the third party.”

Te Whatu Ora expands PowerHealth’s costing solution implementation across South Island

Te Whatu Ora has recently signed a deal to expand further the implementation of a clinical costing solution by PowerHealth across the South Island.

Based on a media release, the expanded implementation of the web-based PowerPerformance Manager (PPM) aims to consolidate the region’s health costing systems by standardising costing configurations in line with the New Zealand Common Costing Standards. 

It also seeks to “improve operational decision-making within health services and hospitals, [provide] better data for health service benchmarking and a sound basis for Inter-District Flow pricing by creating consistency in costing and cost allocation within the health service sector and [lift] the quality of cost reporting.”

The agreement began as a costing tender from the then-Southern District Health Board in 2021. When the New Zealand health system was reformed last year, it adopted a whole-of-country approach to planning and delivery services, hence the decision to expand the adoption of PPM island-wide. 

PPM, which calculates hospital service delivery costs and delivers comprehensive performance reports, has been used by Te Whatu Ora Canterbury and West Coast since 2003.

NSW Health builds new digital register of life-saving drugs

NSW Health has established a new Life-Saving Drugs Register to streamline the tracking of vital stock for time-critical emergencies.

The digital register, according to a media release, updates daily and pinpoints the exact location of life-saving drugs to specific NSW public hospital departments. These medicines include those used to treat paracetamol overdose, snake and spider bites, and poisoning from heavy metals, including 31 antidotes and 10 antivenoms.

The new register, which is accessible via mobile devices, replaces a web-based Excel spreadsheet that is updated every six months. It was also given the ability to link to evidence-based guidelines to provide frontline health workers with directions for the appropriate use of such medications.

Healthscope rolls out Genie Solutions’ latest e-booking solution 

Healthscope, the only national private hospital operation and healthcare provider in Australia, has rolled out an electronic booking solution across its network of 38 hospitals. 

The FHIR-based electronic booking solution by Genie Solutions streamlines the information flow between specialists and hospitals. As the solution allows all procedure and patient information to be securely shared from Genie or Gentu directly to the hospital’s booking system, all essential information is provided before planned procedures. It also enables Healthscope hospitals to see theatre bookings instantly.