Passersby on Fowler Street in Ft. Myers, Fla., may have come across some unusual debris on Dec. 19, 2015, as patient medical records fell from the back of a waste management truck, littering the street.
The records were from Fort Myers-based RadiologyRegionalCenter patients, who are being notified of their privacy potentially being compromised after retrieval efforts did not turn up all of the lost records, which may have contained patient names, addresses, birth dates, Social Security numbers and insurance information.
"As soon as Radiology Regional Center learned of the incident, every effort was made to retrieve the records, including a foot search of the surrounding area by more than a dozen of its employees and physicians," according to a statement issued to the Fort Myers Beach Observer. "In an abundance of caution, a second search of the area was conducted by foot on Dec. 21, 2015 and a third was conducted on Dec. 22, 2015. As a result of its numerous searches, RadiologyRegionalCenter believes that virtually all of the records were retrieved."
The organization has issued recommendations for patients to place fraud-alerts on their credit files and is offering free monitoring services to affected patients.
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