Progress notes and AI data leakage: what a handover gives away in ChatGPT or Claude.

Progress notes are written fast, by tired people, about several residents at once. That is why they are the document most likely to be pasted into ChatGPT or Claude at the end of a shift to be tidied into proper handover. One paste can carry a dozen residents’ health information, a staff member’s private concern about a colleague, and a family’s complaint. This page marks every item in one evening’s notes that the Aged Care Act 2024 and the Privacy Act protect, and shows how the same handover is written up on Ermos inside the service.

Shift handover notes

Written at the end of each shift by care staff and the registered nurse, and read by the next shift at handover.

Invented notes. Hover or tap any highlighted item for the analysis; the full list is below.

What leaves the service

1. 1
   Four residents, by name and room

   Four people identified at once. Each is an individual whose personal information the Act requires the provider to protect, and one paste discloses all of them. Privacy Act guide.

2. 2
   A refusal of medication and an assault on staff

   Health information about a resident with dementia, including a refused anticoagulant and a behaviour that may be a reportable incident in another context. Patient data guide.

3. 3
   A hypoglycaemic episode, a missing watch and a threat to complain

   Clinical information, a possible theft from a resident (a reportable incident under section 16 of the Act if by a worker), and a family member’s stated intention to complain to the regulator. Patient data guide.

4. 4
   A resident at the end of life

   That a named woman is dying, how she is being cared for, and her family’s religious arrangements. Among the most private information a provider will ever hold. Patient data guide.

5. 5
   Wandering, a wife’s request and a family rift

   A resident’s disorientation, a wife’s instruction about who may be told, and a family history that explains it. Three people’s information and a confidence. Privacy Act guide.

6. 6
   A concern about an agency worker

   An allegation that a worker abandoned the floor and looked at a file she had no reason to open. The worker’s personal information, and a matter the Code of Conduct and the provider’s incident process exist to handle properly. Privacy Act guide.

7. 7
   Operational failures

   A broken lift and a supply shortage. Information about the service’s own quality and safety, relevant to the Quality Standards and to any complaint.

8. 8
   The staff who wrote it

   Ties the notes to two named workers, each bound by the Aged Care Code of Conduct.

What happens in Frontier Models (ChatGPT, Claude)

• The whole document is transmitted to the provider’s servers. On personal plans the user cannot choose where it is stored or processed, and for the major providers that has generally meant outside Australia, under that country’s legal process. Some business plans offer storage in Australia, but the provider still receives the content.
• On consumer tiers, prompts can be retained and used to train future models.
• The provider’s staff and systems can reach the content under the provider’s own policies.
• Once sent, the service no longer controls it. Retention and deletion happen on the provider’s terms.

The same document on Ermos

Part of AI data leakage in aged care providers.

Common questions