Employee snoop cause of Calif. breach affecting 5K
An employee at UC Irvine Medical Center has improperly accessed the information of 4,859 patients.
The hospital said it discovered in March that an employee improperly accessed information including patient names, dates of birth, addresses, diagnoses, medical tests and prescriptions and looked at patients' employment status and health plan information. This breach occurred from June 2011 to March 2015.
"As far as it is possible to determine, the employee did not access or electronically distribute Social Security numbers, driver’s licenses or state ID card numbers, or credit or debit card information," according to information on the hospital's website.
The medical center hired independent experts in computer forensics to analyze the employee’s hard drive and email account. Their investigation has found no evidence that the employee removed any patient information.
Local law enforcement launched a criminal investigation that remains ongoing.
The medical center is notifying affected patients and is offering one year of free credit monitoring and identity theft protection.
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.