Bon Secours St. Francis Health System in Greenville, South Carolina came to know about data breach when several employees were receiving unpaid balances for an antibiotic cream, and others were reporting their health insurance companies being charged for the antibiotic creams. After investigation, St. Francis Health found out that a hospital employee was responsible for the incident.
According to the statement, the employee accessed the patient information of approximately 1,997 individuals. Affected information includes patient names, dates of birth, driver’s license numbers, insurance information, clinical information, and potentially Social Security numbers
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St. Francis Health mentions that it will take several measures to avoid such incidents.
“The training will remind our employees that inappropriate use, access or disclosure of patients’ information will result in serious consequences up to and including termination and, where applicable, the involvement of law enforcement,” St. Francis Health explained.
Notification letters are sent to all potentially affected individuals and free credit monitoring services is offered to them.
According to the statement:
“We deeply regret that this has happened. Bon Secours St. Francis takes its responsibility for protecting our patients’ personal information and using it in an appropriate manner very seriously,” the hospital said in a statement. “Please know that our employees work hard every day to provide excellent care to our patients. Words cannot express how deeply disappointed we are that this has occurred.”
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