Small hospital suffers big breach
A stolen laptop is the source of a data breach impacting 29,000 patients of Gibson General Hospital.
The 70-bed facility in southwest Princeton, Ind., said the unencrypted laptop containing the personal health information of patients was stolen from an employee's home on Nov. 27. Patient names, addresses, Social Security numbers and/or clinical treatment data was contained on the laptop.
"There is no evidence to believe that the data on the laptop was the target of the theft or that any information has been or will be accessed for fraudulent purposes," said Emmett Schuster, president and CEO of Gibson General, in a release. He added that the hospital would continue to review policies and procedures to implement additional safeguards of patient privacy and PHI.
Officials say the laptop could contain patient information from as far back as 2007, the year the hospital implemented its EHR system.
Editor
Editor Beth earned a bachelor’s degree in journalism and master’s in health communication. She has worked in hospital, academic and publishing settings over the past 20 years. Beth joined TriMed in 2005, as editor of CMIO and Clinical Innovation + Technology. When not covering all things related to health IT, she spends time with her husband and three children.