Upgrade process leads to stolen hard drive, breach
Updating physician services led to a breach that impacted 7,170 patients of University Hospitals in Cleveland.
Information at risk includes names, addresses, dates of birth, medical record numbers, insurance provider information and some clinical information. Of all the impacted individuals, just 33 had their Social Security numbers compromised. They are being offered one year of credit monitoring and identity theft protection, according to a University Hospitals notice. Other affected patients are receiving information on protecting themselves from fraud.
During the technology upgrade, physician data was backed up on various hard drives and one of the drives was stolen from the vehicle of a contractor’s employee, the organization explains. “It is important to note that to date, UH has not received any reports that the personal and medical information has been accessed or misused. It is possible that the thief may be unaware of the nature of the information on the device or may be unable to access it.”
University Hospitals now is enhancing its encryption policies and procedures.
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.