Lost recording device affects 7,600 Ohio families
A lost recording device is the source of a potential data breach impacting 7,664 patient families of Akron Children's Hospital in Ohio.
On June 30, the hospital discovered that a device containing back-up transport voice recordings was missing, according to a notice posted on its website. "Our investigation indicates this device was lost and was not stolen for malicious purposes."
The device was stored in a locked, secure area of the hospital’s Akron campus and contained voice recordings of communications between dispatchers and medical staff at community hospitals, physician offices and Akron Children’s emergency departments prior to or during medical transport between Sept. 18, 2014, and June 3, 2015. This incident only affected patients transported during that time period.
The recordings do not contain Social Security numbers or financial or insurance information, but some include protected health information, such as patient name, age, gender, birth date, medical record number, location, transfer time, physician name, and chief medical complaint.
"At this time we do not believe parents need to take any further actions," Grace Wakulchik, Akron Children's Hospital COO, told WKBN. "To prevent similar incidents, we have taken steps to ensure all mobile devices are encrypted and we no longer store transport voice recordings on mobile devices."
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.