Stolen Thumb Drive Compromises 34k Patients’ Data at St. Joseph Health Physician Office

Santa Rosa, Calif.-based St. Joseph Health is notifying 34,000 patients of a potential data breach following a burglary at the Redwood Regional Medical Group office, also in Santa Rosa, which St. Joseph health recently acquired, according to a North Bay Business Journal report.

A thumb drive containing patient X-ray information was stolen from an employee's locker. The employee had backed up the records on the thumb drive in order to transfer the information to Santa Rosa Memorial Hospital's electronic health record system, according to the report.

Potential compromised data includes names, gender, medical record number, date of birth, area of the body imaged, X-ray technologist's name and radiation level used. No Social Security numbers, diagnoses, financial or insurance data were stored on the thumb drive, according to the report.

At this point, the hospital does not believe the patients' information was misused but is offering free credit-monitoring and identity theft protection services for one year.

More Articles on Data Breaches:

10 Largest Data Breaches Due to Theft 
Backpack Found Containing Compromised Connecticut Health Exchange Patient Data 
4 Steps to Better HIPAA Compliance 

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