On August 22, 2010, HHC Hospital Police were notified by the Department of Otolaryngology at Kings County Hospital Center of an incident involving the theft of a cable-secured computer from a locked office within the department. Consistent with Corporate and Kings IT security policy, no electronic protected health information was intentionally kept on the computer's hard drive. However, after a thorough investigation and forensic analysis was conducted, it was concluded that some protected health information of patients who were treated by the Department of Otolaryngology in 2005 or 2006, specifically demographic and clinical information, such as name, medical record number, diagnosis and treatment, had unintentionally been downloaded to the computer's hard drive.
Kings has no knowledge that patient health information has, in fact, been improperly accessed or disclosed. Furthermore, we do not believe that the thief's objective was to access data on the computer as the computer was brand new. Regardless, so as to ensure that an incident such as this does not occur again, Kings is currently adopting a new system that will encrypt information that is unintentionally downloaded, thereby rendering it inaccessible to an unauthorized user.
Notification has been sent to all patients affected by this regrettable incident informing them of steps to take to protect themselves from possible harm including how to obtain free credit reports and avoid identity theft. (Free credit reports can be obtained at www.annualcreditreport.com or by calling 1-877-322-8228.) If you were treated in the Kings County Hospital Department of Otolaryngology in 2005 or 2006, but did not receive a notification and would like to find out whether you were personally affected by this incident, please call 1-888-91-HIPAA (888-914-4722) or send an email to CPSO@nychhc.org.
Kings County Hospital Center strives to maintain the privacy and confidentiality of our patients' personal health information and will continue to safeguard against any inappropriate use or disclosure of this information.
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