Physician Group a Victim of Server Theft

Investigating How Many Nevada Patients Affected
Physician Group a Victim of Server Theft
Executives at a Nevada physician group are investigating how many patients were affected when a server was stolen June 11 from an administrative office in Reno, Nev.

University Health System, the Las Vegas-based clinical practice of the University of Nevada School of Medicine, has 185 physicians who practice in 20 locations. It has begun sending letters to an unspecified number of patients to notify them that their information, including name, address, birth date, Social Security number and healthcare details, may have been on the server. It's offering these patients a year's worth of free credit monitoring.

Because more than 500 patients were affected by the breach, University Health System will notify the HHS Office for Civil Rights about how many were affected, as required under the HITECH Act breach notification rule, a spokesman says.

So far, the organization has no evidence that the information on the server has been misused, the spokesman adds. All patients whose information was on the server, even if the amount of information was limited, eventually will be notified, she says.

The investigation is continuing in cooperation with local law enforcement.


About the Author

Howard Anderson

Howard Anderson

Former News Editor, ISMG

Anderson was news editor of Information Security Media Group and founding editor of HealthcareInfoSecurity and DataBreachToday. He has more than 40 years of journalism experience, with a focus on healthcare information technology issues. Before launching HealthcareInfoSecurity, he served as founding editor of Health Data Management magazine, where he worked for 17 years, and he served in leadership roles at several other healthcare magazines and newspapers.




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