The protected health information of 2,553 patients of Eye Care Surgery Center, Inc., of Baton Rouge, LA has been stolen following the theft of a A laptop computer containing.
The theft in question was noticed by Eye Care Surgery Center on February 26, 2018. While it is not known where the device was taken from, according to the company’s substitute breach notice, the measures taken following the violation suggest the device was taken from its offices rather than the vehicle of a staff member.
The theft led to Eye Care Surgery Center implementing a new multi-camera system at its offices, both internal and external of its buildings. The decision has also been taken to employ encryption on most of the portable electronic devices used by Eye Care Surgery Center to stopany future theft incidents from exposing any protected health information.
A review was carried out to determine the sort of information stored on the device and the patients impacted by the incident. Highly sensitive information such as health insurance data, Social Security numbers, and financial information were not saved on the device. The breach was limited to names, birth dates, and diagnosis details. No reports have been filed to suggest any of the information stored on the device have been improperly used.
Affected people have now been alerted of the breach by mail and the incident has been made known to the Department of Health and Human Services’ Office for Civil Rights (OCR).
