Monday, January 17, 2011

Nova Scotia review officer considers investigation of WCB over misdirected file

Last week, the Halifax Chronicle Herald reported that the provincial Workers' Compensation Board mistakenly sent the wrong person's file to an individual who was contesting his claim under the program.

It looks like it was a one-off error:

WCB sends wrong file to man - Metro - TheChronicleHerald.ca)

.... MacLean insists the board does not often mix up its clients and she can’t remember the last time a file was mailed out in error.

"Our employees all go through (Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act) and privacy breach training and we take this all very seriously."

And they have procedures to follow if something does go awry.

To help avoid personal information falling into a stranger’s hands, she said the envelope is stamped with a warning message that asks the recipient to alert the board if the received the envelope in error. It also asks the recipient not to open or destroy its contents.

However, she admitted, she didn’t know how anyone could tell if the file wasn’t theirs without first opening the envelope and reading the contents.

The board is mailing Kinsman his correct file, MacLean said.

Today the paper is reporting that the newly established Privacy Review Officer is considering an investigation: Privacy watchdog mulls probe of WCB - Front - TheChronicleHerald.ca.

I'm not sure that this error indicates any sort of a systemic problem, but I expect we'll hear more about it in the future.

2 comments:

don smith said...

They should also consider investigating how they can dismiss evedence that is presented in a hearing because it could have been presented at a earlier time ,if it was known to be there it would have been produced to them. The wcb should have known these x-rays were on the clients file that would sway the decision for the client

Anonymous said...

Only what wcb wants to see, hear, etc...is all that matters....you must be kidding if what an individual has to present whenever, that the wcb would want to take into account.....they only make sure they're raises are put in place and safe, no matter who it may affect.....