Calif. health vendor laptop stolen; nearly 70K affected

An unencrypted laptop belonging to a California health care vendor was stolen, leaving the sensitive information of thousands of patients at risk.

How many victims? More than 68,000.

What type of personal information? In some cases, patient names, birth dates, allergies, admission dates,  discharge dates, medication names and treating physician names.

What happened? On Nov. 14, the laptop was stolen from the locked car of an employee of Mountain View, Calif.-based Omnicell, a medication and health supplies provider.

What was the response? The company will provide free credit monitoring to affected patients.

Details: The password-protected laptop contained personal information of patients at three health systems: Norfolk, Va.-based Sentara Healthcare, Ann Arbor, Mich.-based University of Michigan Health System (UMHS), and Vineland, N.J.-based South Jersey Healthcare.

Source: www.modernhealthcare.com, ModernHealthcare, “Omnicell breach affects more than 68,000," Jan. 3, 2013.