Don’t Risk Disclosing Patient Information When Upgrading Data Systems

Posted by donna@healthlawcenterplc.com in Apr, 2019

Recently the Department of Health and Human Services’ Office for Civil Rights reported that Zoll Medical experienced a data breach of 277,319 patients’ information during a recent server migration upgrade.  During the migration process a third party vendor archived emails which contained personal information of patients.  Zoll said patient names, addresses, dates of birth and limited medical information could have been exposed as a result of the data breach.  A smaller number of patients had their Social Security numbers exposed.

This latest breach continues an increasing trend of major data breaches in 2019.  In comparing yearly reported data breaches, there has been a seven fold increase in the number of patients affected between February 2018 and February 2019.  Data breaches have resulted in a record $28.7 million in fines in 2018 for companies, hospitals, clinics and medical practices who demonstrate poor responses to data breaches.

If you are contemplating a migration or upgrading your patient billing, medical record systems or email databases, take steps to ensure that the vendors are capable of providing quality services and are held liable for any data breaches caused by their failures.  Take steps to avoid accidental exposure to patient data.  Contact Donna J. Craig, RN, JD at The Health Law Center for more information on how to protect your patients and clients’ information.

Read More at Modern Healthcare