The aftermath of last year’s fiery train derailment in eastern Ohio doesn’t qualify as a public health emergency because widespread health problems and ongoing chemical exposures haven’t been documented, federal officials said.  The Environmental Protection Agency never approved that designation after the February 2023 Norfolk Southern derailment even though the disaster forced the evacuation of […]

Residents of Thessalon First Nation (TFN) are looking for answers after a community nurse allegedly accessed their private records without a “legitimate reason” to do so, according to a local health agency. The TFN members were informed of the alleged mass privacy breach last week via a series of letters from Maamwesying North Shore Community […]

Lives could be put at risk if the Nova Scotia government doesn’t maintain limits on who can access sensitive medical information about patients, a sexual assault survivor told a legislature committee on Monday. Carrie Smith, of Digby, N.S., spoke out against a change in legislation she believes is too broad in giving the province access […]

Hospitals and long-term care homes spent nearly $1 billion last year to fill shifts with nurses and personal support workers from private staffing agencies, a Ministry of Health document estimates. A November 2023 staffing agency update obtained by The Canadian Press through a freedom-of-information request shows that agency use increased from 2021-22 to 2022-23 by […]

After a damning report from the Ontario Health Coalition accusing the PC government of purposely underfunding public health systems to finance the private sector, the organization’s local chapter has announced April 22 will be a day of protest at Brampton Civic Hospital to demand “Truly Universal Healthcare”.  The demonstration is currently scheduled to take place […]

A woman who blew the whistle about Facebook ignoring potential harms to users of the social media platform says proposed laws by Canada and B.C. have promise to hold tech companies to account for profiting off harmful content.  Frances Haugen, a former Facebook product manager, says big tech companies such as Facebook’s parent company Meta […]

Federal civil rights investigators are looking into whether protected health information was exposed in the recent cyberattack on Change Healthcare. The Office for Civil Rights said Wednesday that it also will examine whether Change Healthcare followed laws protecting patient privacy.  Change Healthcare provides technology used to submit and process insurance claims — and handles about […]

HUNTSVILLE, Ala. (AP) — Dana Holladay-Hollifield has worked as a nurse in Alabama for years, but never was her pay as low as it was at Huntsville Hospital. She wondered what executives at the not-for-profit facility made, so she filed a public records request to find out. The hospital is governed by a public board, […]

A British Columbia Supreme Court judge says a class-action lawsuit can move forward over alleged privacy breaches against a company that made an app to track users’ menstrual and fertility cycles.  The ruling published online Friday says the action against Flo Health Inc. alleges the company shared users’ highly personal health information with third-parties, including […]

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Kansas moved closer Thursday to requiring abortion providers to ask patients why they want to terminate their pregnancies and report the answers to the state. It would join other states with Republican legislatures that ban most abortions even though Kansas voters have affirmed abortion rights. The House approved, in an 81-39 […]

An RCMP investigation has revealed a possible privacy breach for thousands of employees who worked or work at a health authority in British Columbia’s Interior.  Interior Health says police contacted them in January about finding a document during its investigation that contained everything from social insurance numbers to home addresses for about 20,000 people. The […]

ANNAPOLIS, Md. (AP) — Gender-affirming treatment in Maryland would be protected from criminal and civil actions brought by other states under a measure approved Tuesday by the state Senate. The Democrat-controlled Senate voted 33-13 for the measure that would provide the same legal protection offered by the state for abortions. It now goes to the […]