The Children's Hospital of Eastern Ontario is under fire after one of its employees shared the medical records of 283 children with students at Algonquin College.

Patients' names, genders, medical registration numbers, allergies and surgical procedures were distributed in a handout to 32 students in two classes at the college, by a part-time instructor who also works at the hospital.

CHEO officials say up to eight students may have seen the information, and that the handouts were recovered less than an hour after they were handed out.

"We take this very seriously and are taking all necessary steps to prevent this from happening again," CHEO said, in a letter to parents issued March 6.

The instructor passed out the information to two classes in the community studies and health, policy & public safety faculties at the school. 

"We have worked together with Algonquin College to contain and investigate the breach," CHEO officials said in their letter to parents. "Students who saw the material have been contacted, have been reminded of the information's confidential nature, and those interviewed by Algonquin College have confirmed that the information did not leave the classroom."

The information was being used to "teach future health professionals how to support surgeries in a hospital setting," the hospital said.

The instructor came forward to both the College and CHEO shortly after the incident occurred in early February. In a statement, the Algonquin College said the teacher is no longer working at the school.

Several parents told CTV Ottawa they are angry about the breach. They all declined to be identified publicly.

"I am so upset that I trusted CHEO to keep my daughter safe and her information safe," one parent told CTV Ottawa. "I feel violated and very upset."

The hospital and the college are investigating the breach.

"We take this situation very seriously and a disciplinary process is underway," a CHEO spokesperson said, in a statement to CTV Ottawa. "We will incorporate the learnings from the breach into future mandatory private training efforts."

Hospital officials offered their "sincere apologies" in the letter to parents.

"This should not have happened," the CHEO letter said. "We are committed to making sure it does not happen again."

With files from CTV Ottawa