Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) is notifying 648 patients that an employee inadvertently sent an email containing their personal information to the wrong email address.
How many victims? 648.
What type of personal information? Names, lab results and Social Security numbers.
What happened? A MGH employee inadvertently sent an email containing the personal information to the wrong email address.
What was the response? MGH is updating its processes so the information will no longer be handled via email. The MGH workforce is being reeducated on the importance of handling patient information securely. All affected individuals are being notified, and offered a free year of identity protection services.
Details: MGH learned of the incident on May 26. Several attempts to retrieve the email were unsuccessful.
Quote: “To date, we have no knowledge that any of your information has been used improperly,” a notification letter said.
Source: doj.nh.gov, “Incident Notification,” July 8, 2015.
