Colossal breach puts 4M on alert

An office burglary at Advocate Medical Group (AMG) in Park Ridge, Ill., put the protected health information of more than four million patients at risk.

Four password-protected but not encrypted computers were stolen, and they contained patient information including names, addresses, dates of birth, Social Security numbers and limited clinical information—but patient medical records were unaffected, according to an official notice on the breach. The limited clinical information included information on treating physicians and/or departments, diagnoses, medical record numbers, medical service codes and health insurance data.

“The most important thing is that this issue has no impact on patient care,” Kevin McCune, MD, AMG’s chief medical officer, said in a statement. “Security is a top priority for our healthcare ministry. Nothing leads us to believe that the computers were taken for the information they contained or that any patient information has been used inappropriately.”

In response to the incident, AMG is providing affected patients with free credit monitoring and identity theft protection and hiring 24/7 security personnel as well as accelerating deployment of enhanced technical safeguards, according to the release.

Law enforcement officials have yet to recover the machines.

Advocate Medical Group is the region’s largest physician group with more than 1,000 doctors and 200 locations, and is part of Advocate Health Care, the region’s largest hospital chain with 12 hospitals.