HOUSTON — Memorial Hermann Health System announced Tuesday that 507 of its patients had their health information disclosed "inappropriately."
The hospital system said one of its employees emailed an attachment containing the info on June 3.
According to Memorial Hermann, the document included patient names, medical record numbers, payment histories and insurers. Some patients' diagnoses was also included.
Here is the full statement from the hospital, which indicates patients will be offered assistance in protecting their identity:
Memorial Hermann Health System announced today it is mailing notification letters to patients whose protected health information was disclosed inappropriately.
On June 3, 2019, an employee emailed an attachment containing the protected health information of 507 patients in error. The document included patient names, medical record numbers, payment histories, and insurers. For a limited number of affected patients, details regarding diagnoses may have been included as well. Memorial Hermann contacted the recipient immediately following discovery of the incident, and obtained assurances that the document was deleted. At this time, Memorial Hermann does not believe that the protected health information involved was or will be further disclosed.
Memorial Hermann is taking actions to assist all individuals who may have been impacted, including providing those individuals free access to a credit monitoring service. Individuals who do not receive a letter from Memorial Hermann regarding this matter in the following week were most likely not impacted by this incident.
At Memorial Hermann, protecting and securing patient information is a top priority and the system deeply regrets any inconvenience this incident may have caused its patients. Privacy training is mandatory for all employees, and the system will continue to update and review its privacy policies and practices in an effort to prevent a reoccurrence.
More information can be found on the Memorial Hermann website or by calling 1-800-621-4249.
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