Letters in the wrong envelope, sensitive documents left on a photocopier, an autofill error in an email - these are some of the most common privacy breaches, and have been since the Privacy Act was passed in 1993.

These mistakes happen in all kinds of agencies, and they can be particularly harmful in the health and disability sector. So it makes sense that everyone working with health information should have a solid understanding information privacy.

But there’s a problem - health and disability workers are very busy, and don’t have time to  read up on every detail of information privacy. What’s more, some people may not even need that much detail!

This is the feedback we’ve heard from the health and disability community over the years. Today, we’re responding to that feedback with a new online training module: Health ABC.

Health ABC is designed for busy health and disability workers who only need the basics of health information privacy. It takes less than an hour to complete, and uses scenarios to bring concepts to life. It’s also divided into 12 short sections, so you can easily dive into the information you need, when you need it.

Half of the module deals with some of the important concepts for dealing with health information, such as drafting privacy statements and using information in a fair and reasonable way. The other half deals with common situations that we’ve seen and heard about - things like taking information off site, dealing with patients who want to video you, how to address a serious threat and working with children’s health information.

A friend for Health 101

Keen followers of our work will see some overlap with another module - Health 101. Health 101, which we released in 2015, is a three-hour, deep dive into the health information privacy code. It’s great for someone who needs to really get into the details, such as a privacy officer in a DHB or an IT specialist in a large general practice.

Health ABC is a companion to Health 101. We encourage everyone to take Health ABC, because it gives a solid foundation of privacy knowledge. This may be enough for some people, and for others, it will give you something to build on when you go on to Health 101.

Making privacy easy

We developed Health ABC in order to make privacy easy for everyone in a health organisation. By giving everyone the tools they need to understand their privacy rights and obligations, we hope to instill a strong “privacy-first” culture, at every level of every health and disability agency.

If you own or manage one of these organisations, getting your staff to take Health ABC can help you avoid time-consuming, costly privacy breaches that erode patient trust. This will become even more relevant in coming years, as the new Privacy Act, with mandatory breach reporting, makes its way through Parliament.

Finally, Health ABC is free, it doesn’t take long, and since it’s online, you can do it at your own pace, from anywhere. So sign up today and get the information you need to protect patient privacy, every day.

Image credit: OPC

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