VA Eastern Colorado Health Care System

A covered entity's (CE's) employee placed paper records containing protected health information (PHI) in an unsecured box that was left undiscovered in a public parking garage for four days. The box contained the PHI of 649 patients. The PHI included treatment records, productivity reports, coding information, names, medical treatments, conditions, diagnoses, and social security numbers. Upon discovery of the breach, the CE notified the affected individuals and provided credit protection to those whose social security numbers had been breached. The CE provided OCR with copies of its breach prevention policies and procedures. Following OCR's investigation, the employee who left the records resigned from her position and the CE improved its breach response procedures.