Laguna Honda clinicians tell Health Commission Epic settings exposed employee health data; commissioners seek update

Two physicians who identified themselves as clinicians at Laguna Honda Hospital said they and colleagues found sensitive occupational‑health information accessible in the DPH Epic instance and urged DPH to publicly acknowledge and fix the problem.

"To date, there has been no public or DPH‑wide announcement or acknowledgment of this data breach," said Namita Consul, a Laguna Honda physician who said staff reported privacy concerns to occupational health and to OCPA in May 2021 and had not received adequate answers. Consul described visible Social Security numbers and private demographic information in Epic records for employees.

Victoria Behrman, another Laguna Honda physician, said the migration of occupational health records into Epic revealed medical encounter histories and demographic fields at check‑in: "We found that when we went to get our COVID screening tests, the clerk checking us in was presented with an opening screen that listed all of our recent medical encounters with Kaiser or our Sutter doc or whoever." She said that led to repeated exposure of private data and that prior staff requests for protections had not resolved the problem.

Commissioner Chow asked staff to bring an update to the commission soon; Commissioner Christian and Vice President Green voiced support for a prompt briefing and for the leadership to get a "firm grasp" of the incident. Commissioners asked for technical and IT remediation and for the department to share what fixes are being implemented before the next meeting.

The commission did not take formal action during the public comment period, but several commissioners requested an explicit update on the status and corrective steps prior to their next scheduled meeting.