A woman was recently convicted of knowingly accessing health information of seven people in contravention of the Health Information Act (HIA).
On Feb. 5, Denise Tourneur pleaded guilty to illegitimately accessing the health information of seven individuals on 44 separate occasions at the Kaye Edmonton Clinic where she worked.
The situation stemmed from a breach discovered by Alberta Health Services and reported to the Office of the Information and Privacy Commissioner (OIPC) in October 2013. The OIPC completed an offence investigation then referred the matter to Crown prosecutors at Alberta Justice. In April 2015 charges were laid.
After considering the circumstances of the case, the judge issued a $1,000 fine (see Edmonton Provincial Court docket 150388239P1).
This was the fourth conviction since HIA was enacted in 2001. In 2015, two other individuals were charged for knowingly accessing health information in contravention of HIA and those matters are before the courts.