Edmonton medical clinic employee fined after admitting to health data breaches

A medical office assistant in Edmonton has been fined $3,500 for knowingly accessing the health information of two people, the Office of the Information and Privacy Commissioner said in a news release Thursday.

Glenda Garcia pleaded guilty in provincial court on Sept. 26 to accessingthe health records without a valid purpose under the Health Information Act on numerous occasionsat the Terwillegar Family Clinic where she was employed.

"Ms. Garcia made suspicious statements to the two individuals about personal medical details," the release said.

The statements prompted the twoindividuals torequestaccess to their audit logs inthe provincial electronic health record system. They thenfiledcomplaints with the privacy commissioner.

After an investigation, Garcia was chargedin March.

Garciawas fined $3,500 and ordered topay a victim surcharge of $525.

This is the third time this year someone has beenconvicted of illegally accessing health information, the release said.

There have been 12 such convictions since 2001.