The CEO of the public hospital in Las Vegas didn't think she had a patient privacy leak until Las Vegas Sun reporter Marshall Allen proved it to her. Allen showed the hospital chief actual hospital face sheets – complete with patient's social security numbers, birth dates, addresses and more personal information. Stunned, the CEO was forced to address a problem she had ignored for months. The day after the Sun's report, the FBI launched an investigation into the breach of federal patient privacy laws.
The story exposed the inept management of the hospital. The CEO had done little to address rumors of a privacy leak until she was could no longer deny the problem. And one of the county commissioners – who is also on the hopsital's board of trustees – had heard of the leak but, showing his ignorance, did not take action because he was not sure that it was a violation of the law.
The privacy leak was the latest in a series of scandals at the hospital that led the hospital's board of trustees to announce that they were exploring a governance change at the hospital.
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