I had patient data stored for research purposes. I lost it somewhere, cannot find it. Is this a HIPPA violation? What do I need to do? Should I report this to someone?

Ummm, were you given permission to put this info on a memory drive? Were you given express written permission from each patient?

Are you the doctor? Nurse? Receptionist? What is your position at your place of employment?

This most definitely sounds like a HIPAA violation.

Were you given permission to put this data on a USB drive?

Hmm... I had no idea I would have to seek permission. I did not ask anyone

In that case, yes, it is a HIPAA violation as you violated the private rights of the patients.

At any given time there are approximately 75 people looking at our medical records. They are required to keep those records private and those records belong to the institution where the patient/s were treated.

It is possible what happened can be construed not only as a HIPAA violation, but as theft as well.

You lost that drive, now, if there was personal info on it, such as social security numbers, insurance company numbers, birth dates, etc... this can pose a threat of identity theft if found the wrong person or persons.

Thank you

It is situations like this that are so completely Res Ipsa Loquitur, which applies to the law of negligence and means the thing speaks for itself. I can't imagine why you would not know that using any information for whatever reason without consent would be okay and yet you justify this? I am actually going to use this site as a reference for my Medical Law class. This is why laws are made to stop people like you and others from violating a patients right to privacy! What you did is criminal and the consequence of your actions could land you with a hefty fine and time in jail. But I guess you didn't know about that either. I hope you never do something so thoughtless ever again and I hope more people read about this and start taking a person's right to privacy regarding medical information more seriously.