Henry Ford Health System in Michigan notified HHS that a computer stolen in August contained protected health information on 520 patients.
In an October 10, 2011 statement on their web site, they writ
Required Substitute Notice: Infectious Diseases Patients’ Health Information Compromised
PATIENT HOTLINE NUMBER: (866) 523-6770
Oct. 10, 2011Henry Ford Health System is notifying patients about their health information after a computer storing this information was stolen. The information was unsecured and belonged to 520 patients.
The computer was stolen sometime between Aug. 5-7, 2011 from the Infectious Diseases lab at our corporate offices One Ford Place. As of this date, the computer has not been recovered.
Henry Ford discovered the theft on Aug. 8, 2011 and immediately began an investigation to determine the affected patients, type of health information stored on the computer and types of security protections installed on the computer.
The information stored on the computer was between the time period of March 2009 and August 2011, and included the patient’s name, physician’s name, medical record number, and results of a genotype test that showed the drugs that would work best to treat their condition. The computer was password protected and did not store the patient’s Social Security number, health insurance number, date of birth, or other personal identifying information that could be used for identity theft or fraud.
This situation was isolated to this computer, and did not involve any other secured patient information kept by the health system.
To address any questions or concerns, Henry Ford has set up a toll-free telephone number for patients to call between 9 a.m. and 9 p.m. Monday-Friday. The number is (866) 523-6770.
This was their third breach report in a little over a year. In February, they reported that an employee lost a flash drive with information on 2,777 patients and in November 2010, they reported that a stolen laptop contained PHI on 3,700.