Brigham doc loses hard drive with info on 638 patients
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The Boston-based hospital stated in a release that it has notified the potentially-affected patients that their medical information may have been on the device.
The following information related to inpatient hospital stays from July 10, 2009 to January 28, may have been present on the device: patient name, medical record number, dates of admission, medications and information about diagnosis and treatment.
The information did not contain social security numbers, insurance numbers or other financial account information, the organization stressed.
“Brigham and Women’s/Faulkner Hospital takes the privacy and security of our patients’ information very seriously. We are taking steps to reduce the risk of such events occurring in the future, including addressing the incident specifically with those involved, reviewing and augmenting our policies and procedures and enhancing our training regarding technical safeguards required on external hard drives that may contain sensitive data, as well as limiting the amount of data stored on such devices,” said Sue Schade, Brigham and Women’s/Faulkner Hospital’s chief information officer.
As of press time, the hospital stated it has no knowledge that the information on this device has been accessed. As a precaution, it is offering affected patients identity protection services.