Thousands of Wis. hospital patients at risk after laptop theft
A laptop containing the personal information of thousands of patients of Aurora St. Luke's Medical Center in Milwaukee was recently stolen.How many victims? 6,400.
What type of personal information? Names, Social Security numbers, dates of birth, diagnosis codes and medical record numbers. Medical records were not contained on the stolen laptop.
What happened? The laptop was stolen in mid-October from a locked office in a secure physicians office building located adjacent to the hospital. The computer belongs to an employee of an independent physician group called Cogent Healthcare of Wisconsin.Details: The laptop contained the personal information of individuals who had been in-patients at Aurora St. Luke's and were cared for by the Cogent Healthcare physician.
Quote: "There is absolutely no danger that Aurora medical records of these patients would be, or could be, in jeopardy through this theft," Aurora Health care spokesman Adam Beeson told WISN.com.
What was the response? Letters have been sent to affected individuals. Cogent Healthcare is offering free credit protection to those who were impacted by the breach.
Source: WISN.com, “Laptop With Personal Information Stolen From Aurora St. Luke's,” Nov. 25, 2009.
