Mayo Fires Worker for Records Unauthorized Access

ST. PAUL, Minn.—The Mayo Clinic announced Sept. 8 that in July it fired one of its financial business unit employees in its Arizona facility for accessing an estimated 1,700 patient records without authorization.

While it does not appear that the worker did anything with the information, Mayo spokesman Chris Gade said the clinic is alerting every patient whose file was improperly accessed and will provide free credit reports and monitoring for those affected.

Gade said an audit of its monitoring of patient personal health information uncovered the breach in July. Following an investigation, the employee, who admitted accessing the records ...