A staff member at a Washington state-run mental health facility used a personal ChatGPT account to draft patient notes, and a similar incident occurred at a second state facility, potentially exposing the protected health information of 16 patients, The Seattle Times reported.
At Burien, Wash.-based Lake Burien Transitional Care Facility, which treats youth with intensive mental health needs, an employee reported in July that a colleague was using ChatGPT to summarize client case notes. The Department of Social and Health Services, which oversees the facility, later found the employee had used a personal ChatGPT account for other patients as well. DSHS notified families of 12 patients in mid-August.
Patient names, diagnosis details and medications may have been exposed. Social Security numbers were not involved, and the state found no evidence the data was further disclosed or used for identity theft.
DSHS spokesperson Jessica Nelson said a second incident at Western State Hospital in Lakewood, Wash., potentially exposed four more patients’ information. Staff in both cases were notified of the agency’s policies on client confidentiality and AI use. The Lake Burien employee was instructed on IT security protocols and deleted all prompts before closing the account, Ms. Nelson said.
DSHS has identified no additional incidents or affected patients, a spokesperson from the department told Becker’s. The agency will report both incidents to HHS’ Office for Civil Rights after the end of the calendar year, as federal rules allow for breaches affecting fewer than 500 people. Agency policy prohibits all unapproved AI use.
Taya Briley, executive vice president of the Washington State Hospital Association, said consumer chatbots fall short of required security standards.
“You can adopt policies. You can have great AI governance. It is not going to be effective if staff are not trained to the extent that they need to be,” Ms. Briley said.
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