Clinic chain breach hits 2,500 patients
American Family Care is offering one year of identity protection services to nearly 2,500 patients after two laptops were stolen from an employee’s car in July.
The clinic chain operates 55 clinics in Alabama, Florida, Georgia and Tennessee. The organization has contracted with AllClear ID to provide the protection.
The breach affects patients in the Birmingham, Ala., region, which includes 16 clinics. The laptops were stolen in Marietta, Ga., and were “strongly password protected,” according to the organization. The laptops contained only information on Birmingham area patients being treated for work-related injuries or illnesses, not data related to primary or urgent care visits. They did, however, include Social Security numbers, names, birth dates, addresses, phone numbers, medical record numbers, medical and insurance information, driver’s license numbers and dates of service.
The organization now is adopting encryption technology.
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.