Stolen laptop, drive impacts Ariz. mental health patients

Beth Walsh | | Health Exec | Cybersecurity

A laptop and hard drive containing sensitive medical and personal data for hundreds of mental health patients of Arizona Counseling and Treatment Services were stolen from an employee's home in March.

According to an article published by the Yuma Sun, the employee immediately filed a police report upon realizing there had been a break-in and continued to look for the laptop and drive, hoping they'd just been misplaced. The laptop was loaded with recovery tracking software, but the drive was not.

Saved to that drive were names, dates of birth and treatment plans but no Social Security numbers or financial information of more than 500 patients served between 2011 and 2013.



 

Beth Walsh,

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.

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