Memorial Hermann
Health System announced today it is mailing notification letters
to patients whose protected health information was disclosed inappropriately.
On June 3, 2019, an employee emailed an attachment
containing the protected health information of 507 patients in error. The
document included patient names, medical record numbers, payment histories, and
insurers. For a limited number of affected patients, details regarding
diagnoses may have been included as well. Memorial Hermann contacted the recipient
immediately following discovery of the incident, and obtained assurances that
the document was deleted. At this time, Memorial Hermann does not believe that
the protected health information involved was or will be further disclosed.
Memorial Hermann is
taking actions to assist all individuals who may have been impacted, including providing
those individuals free access to a credit monitoring service. Individuals who
do not receive a letter from Memorial Hermann regarding this matter in the
following week were most likely not impacted by this incident.
At Memorial
Hermann, protecting and securing patient information is a top priority and the system deeply
regrets any inconvenience this incident may have caused its patients.
Privacy training is mandatory
for all employees, and the systemwill continue
to update and review its privacy policies and practices in an
effort to prevent a reoccurrence.
More information
can be found on the Memorial Hermann websiteor by calling 1-800-621-4249.