Centura Health announced Tuesday it is investigating a case of a missing external hard drive that contained medical records of Mercy Family Medicine patients seen between Aug. 1 and Oct. 3, 2012.
In June, former patients of Durango Family Medicine were alerted of the breach of private health information, which could include medical conditions, medications and social histories, among other information.
Durango Family Medicine health providers in 2012 became employees at Mercy Regional Medical Center for Mercy Family Medicine, and the old records were stored onto an external hard drive.
On June 21, Centura Health became aware that the hard drive also contained some information related to patient visits when that transition was happening, a news release said Tuesday.
The information on the hard drive, which was discovered missing April 7, did not include social security numbers or credit card/bank account information, the news release said.
On Aug. 8, Centura Health mailed a letter of notification to potentially affected patients.
“We take our role of protecting patient information very seriously, and we deeply regret that this happened,” Nima Davis, vice president and corporate responsibility Officer for Centura Health, said in a prepared statement.
Centura Health claims there is no evidence the information on the hard drive was used or seen.
Centura Health said it has filed a police report and asked Durango Family Medicine to return/destroy Mercy Family’s portion of visits from hard drives and no longer store hard drives at the Mercy location.
jromeo@durangoherald.com
