More than 500 patients of California-based Riverside County Regional Medical Center (RCRMC) have been notified that their personal information was on a laptop that was reported missing from a hospital procedure room.
How many victims? 563.
What type of personal information? Names, dates of birth, medical record numbers and test results for patients who recently had an electromyogram.
What happened? A RCRMC laptop containing the data was reported missing from a hospital procedure room.
What was the response? An investigation is ongoing. To minimize the risk of future incidents, RCRMC is encrypting sensitive patient data, using locks to secure laptops to carts, and developing advanced security access in areas where sensitive patient information is stored. All impacted individuals have been notified.
Details: The laptop was reported missing sometime “late last week,” according to the notification.
Quote: “We have no reason to believe the computer is missing because of the patient information it contained,” Jan Remm, an assistant RCRMC administrator who oversees regulatory compliance, said in a notification posted to the website.
Source: rcrmc.org, “Hospital Patients Notified That Missing Laptop Contained Their Personal Information,” June 24, 2014.
