Unsecure email causes N.C. breach
A North Carolina organization has notified 1,310 patients that protected health information was in an unsecured email sent to a trusted outside source.
CaroMont Health in Gastonia discovered the unsecure email through a routine security audit in August. the organization said in a statement that there is no reason to believe the email was intercepted or received by anyone other than the intended recipient. However, the policy to encrypt emails was not followed and the organization is retraining staff.
Compromised information includes patient name, date of birth, address, telephone number, medical record number, diagnosis, medications, insurer and last date of service. Information for two patients also included their Medicare number.
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.