And yet another organization — South Jersey Healthcare — has come forward to say that their patients were affected by the Omnicell breach discussed previously on this blog. According to The Daily Journal, 8,555 of their patients were affected. Interestingly, The Daily Journal describes the device as a laptop. All other coverage has been silent…
Category: Health Data
Update on Omnicell stolen device breach: 56,000 Sentara patients impacted
When an electronic device with unencrypted patient information was stolen from the unattended vehicle of an Omnicell employee, the University of Michigan Health System notified 3,997 of their patients, but there were other hospitals that were not named at the time. Thanks to WVEC, we now know 56,000 Sentara Healthcare patients treated between Oct. 18 and…
HHS announces first HIPAA breach settlement involving less than 500 patients
I was hoping we’d get more information about this settlement and now HHS has provided it. As I had suspected, the Hospice of North Idaho breach affected fewer than 500 patients. And as a commenter suggested, the fine was because they had no risk analysis nor policies for mobile device security. From HHS’s press release:…
Reducing insider breaches – what works?
Over the past year, I’ve had the opportunity to talk to a number of people in different organizations who are concerned with insider breaches in the health care sector. One of those people is Kurt Long, CEO and Founder of FairWarning, a firm that provides patient privacy monitoring (privacy breach detection) systems. So, here’s a…
Gibson General Hospital notifies 29,000 patients after laptop stolen from an employee's home
Brad Conaway reports that Gibson General Hospital has mailed letters to 29,000 patients informing them that their name, address, Social Security number and/or clinical information may have been on a laptop stolen from an employee’s home on November 27. Unfortunately, as the hospital explains in its statement and FAQ, the hospital cannot determine with any…
Brigham and Women’s Hospital statement regarding the theft of a computer
I recently noted that HHS’s breach tool had revealed some breaches we hadn’t known about. One of them was from Brigham & Women’s Hospital in Massachusetts. I contacted them to request a copy of their statement or press release, and was told that because there were less than 500 patients affected in Massachusetts, they had…