Leesburg-based UF Health Central Florida has been sued by a patient after a May cyberattack exposed the data of 700,981 patients, according to a lawsuit filed Oct. 14.
Four things to know:
- The system has been sued by Crystal Holmes, a former patient, for allegedly failing to keep patients' data safe. The system has also been accused of retaining protected health information beyond the required time frame, which made more data vulnerable to hackers.
- In the lawsuit, which is seeking class-action status, Ms. Holmes said she suffered lost time, annoyance, interference and anxiety from the cyber event, according to court documents.
- The health system experienced a cyberattack on or around May 31. The attack forced hospital employees to revert to consulting paper records. UF Health Central Florida said patient information was compromised, including names, Social Security numbers, addresses, birth dates, health insurance details and treatment details.
- After the breach, UF Health's EHR system and other IT systems were down for almost a month, during which the health system switched to paper documentation. UF Health said it brought the EHR back online June 25.