Business
Thief takes hospital system records
NEWS IN BRIEF — Posted Feb. 20, 2006
Providence Health System in Portland, Ore., on Jan. 25 notified 365,000 patients that their records were stolen from an employee's car, The Oregonian newspaper reported. The theft occurred on Dec. 31, 2005, after a thief smashed a car window, seizing computer disks and magnetic tapes containing the data of patients who received home health services across Oregon and Washington.
At press time, the Oregon Attorney General had received six unconfirmed accusations of identity theft linked to the Providence records. A class-action lawsuit has been filed against the health system.
Providence initially told affected patients to check with credit-monitoring services to determine if they were affected. But now the health system has offered to pay patients for certain credit-protection services, including ongoing credit monitoring.
The health system, which previously directed employees to store disks and tapes in their homes for emergency back-up, has begun sending backup files to a secure off-site, The Oregonian reported.
Note: This item originally appeared at http://www.ama-assn.org/amednews/2006/02/20/bibf0220.htm.
