Lake Pulmonary Critical Care PA

The covered entity (CE), Lake Pulmonary Critical Care, PA, discovered that a former employee removed patient medical records from the office and took them home. The theft of this protected health information (PHI) affected 648 individuals. The medical information included patients’ names, addresses, phone numbers, dates of birth, social security numbers, health insurance information, medical diagnoses, lab results, medications, and other treatment information. The CE provided timely breach notification to HHS, to affected individuals, and to the media. In response to the breach, the CE improved safeguards by installing employee lockers for all personal items and installing privacy walls at the nurses’ stations. In addition, the CE arranged for HIPAA training for its employees and doctors. OCR obtained assurances that the CE implemented the corrective actions listed above.