Laptop stolen from Tennessee hospital

A laptop theft at Blount Memorial Hospital in Maryville, Tenn. has compromised the personal data of several thousand patients.

How many victims? Approximately 27,000.

What type of personal information? Names, dates of birth, addresses, patients' physician names, billing information and, in some cases, Social Security numbers and other non-medical information.

What happened? On Aug. 25, a password-protected laptop was reported stolen from a BMH employee's home. The data of two groups of patients was on the computer – the first group contained the information of about 22,000 individuals, and the other included that of 5,000 patients.

What was the response? The hospital notified victims.

Details: Hospital officials said there was no reason to believe that the information had been improperly used or accessed. No patient medical information was on the laptop, which is yet to be recovered.

Source: thedailytimes.com, The Daily Times, “BMH notifies patients of stolen laptop containing patient information,” Oct. 18, 2012.