Emory Patient Records Reported Missing

Medical records for 315,000 patients containing over 220,000 Social Security numbers are missing from Emory Healthcare.

In a notice posted April 18, Emory Healthcare advised that 10 backup disc containing information on surgical patients treated between September 1990 and April 2007 are missing. According to Emory Healthcare, "It is important to note that there was no actual or attempted breach or 'hacking in' of Emory's electronic medical records or other systems."

The 315,000 patients affected by the data loss were treated at Emory University Hospital, Emory University Hospital Midtown (formerly known as Emory Crawford Long Hospital) and The Emory Clinic Ambulatory Surgery Center. Patients treated at other Emory Healthcare facilities or patients treated after April 2007 are not affected.  

Emory Healthcare has advised it will pay for access to identity protection services, including credit monitoring, for all affected patients.

In addition to containing Social Security numbers of 228,000 patients, the missing records also contained patient names, dates of surgery, diagnoses, procedure codes or the name of the surgical procedures, device implant information, surgeon names and anesthesiologist names.  

"We sincerely regret this incident and want to assure our patients that we are committed to safeguarding their personal information," said John T. Fox, president and CEO of Emory Healthcare, in a released statement. "While we have no evidence at this time that any personal information has been misused as a result of this incident, we want to take all precautions to ensure our patients' information is safe. We are moving forward expeditiously with providing all affected patients, at our cost, access to identity protection services, including credit monitoring."  

Emory Healthcare officials believe the discs were removed in February of this year. According to a statement on the Emory Healthcare website, the data was from an obsolete software system and had last been accessed in 2010.

The hospital system is mailing letters to affected patients with details about the incident and what steps patients can take to protect themselves.  

For more information, call the toll-free Emory Healthcare Support Center hotline (1-855-205-6950) or visit www.emoryhealthcare.org/protection.