Meg Haskell of the Bangor Daily News reports that 660 patients at Eastern Maine Medical Center will be receiving letters that their personal information was on a hard drive that was discovered missing on December 22, 2017.
The hard drive, owned and operated by an unnamed vendor, held information on patients who underwent cardiac ablation between Jan. 3, 2011 and Dec. 11, 2017.
The full text of the the medical center’s notice, as posted on their web site today:
Bangor, Maine – Eastern Maine Medical Center is notifying 660 patients that a portable external computer hard drive containing their personal health information cannot be located at its State Street Campus.
The device stores information from some patients who underwent cardiac ablation procedures performed at the medical center between January 3, 2011 and December 11, 2017. The device was owned and operated by a third-party vendor. It contained full names, dates of birth, dates of service, medical record numbers, one word condition descriptors, and procedural images. Social Security numbers, addresses, and financial information were not stored on this device.
Although the risk for identity theft related to this incident is low, in an abundance of caution, Eastern Maine Medical Center has mailed notifications to all affected patients to ensure they are well informed of the event and can take precautions to protect their identity. All affected patients will be offered a free one-year identity theft monitoring service.
All affected patients will receive notification by mail in the coming days. Eastern Maine Medical Center has also established a dedicated assistance line that is available Monday through Friday from 8 am to 3 pm by calling 1-855-973-8200.
Eastern Maine Medical Center continues to investigate the circumstances surrounding this incident and has contacted law enforcement to assist in our investigation.
“Eastern Maine Medical helps many patients through private healthcare matters each day. We take our commitment to uphold our patients’ privacy very seriously and are reviewing our processes to strengthen data security,” says Donna Russell-Cook, Eastern Maine Medical Center president.