Company: Worker improperly disposed of prescription records
HENDERSON, Nev. (AP) — A supermarket company says it has terminated an employee who improperly disposed of thousands of patients' pharmacy records from a Nevada store.
Smith's Food & Drug said Friday it discovered Aug. 29 that the worker at a Henderson store discarded nearly 58,000 patient prescriptions in July.
The company said the paper prescriptions were at least 11 years old and were placed in a trash compactor.
According to Smith's, information in the records may include a patient's name, gender, birth date, address, phone number and prescription information.
Smith's said it hadn't received any indication that the information has been misused.
Company spokeswoman Aubriana Martindale said Smith's will take steps to prevent similar incidents and is retraining some workers on health privacy.
Smith's is a division of Cincinnati -based Kroger.