Patient and employee information was potentially compromised at Nashville, Ark.-based Howard Memorial Hospital after an unauthorized party accessed files from the hospital.
On Dec. 4, Howard Memorial Hospital said it became aware of suspicious activity on its network. An investigation later discovered that files from its system were potentially stolen by an "unknown actor" between Nov. 14 and Dec. 4.
The files contained patient names, contact information, Social Security numbers, health insurance information, medical history, treatment information, medical record numbers, physician names and dates of birth.
"HMH takes this event and the security of your information seriously. Upon learning of this event, we immediately took steps to secure our network and ensure that we could maintain operations in a safe and secure fashion," a Dec. 29 notice from Howard Memorial stated.
Details on how the data theft was discovered, the number of files and individuals affected, and the potential financial impact have not been disclosed.
This incident was the fifth in the state in 2022.