An employee laptop containing the personal information of 826 patients was stolen from a vehicle at an Atlanta-based Emory Healthcare clinic.
On Feb.7, a vehicle belonging to an employee of Health Systems Management, which operates the Emory Dialysis Clinic, was broken into, and the employee's work laptop was stolen, according to an Atlanta Journal-Constitution report
The laptop contained first and last names for about half of the 826 patients, and the first initial for the remaining patients. The patients' dates of service and graphs of blood flow tests were also stored on the laptop, according to the report. The stolen computer was password-protected, but was not encrypted.
As a result of the data breach, Health Systems Management has instituted process changes to protect against a similar event occurring in the future. Medical information stored on Health System Management laptops is now required to be encrypted, as well as password-protected.
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