Houston-based Memorial Hermann Healthcare System recently revealed it suffered a large data breach, affecting 10,000 patients.
According to the health system, a former clinical employee accessed patients’ electronic medical records outside of the employee’s normal job duties over a seven-year period. The records that were accessed included patients’ names, addresses, medical record numbers, dates of birth, health insurance information, and, in some instances, social security numbers. No financial information was accessed, the health system says.
The breach comes a few weeks after Franklin, Tenn.-based Community Health Systems, Inc. stated that the personal data of approximately 4.5 million patients was stolen by hackers from its computer network in April and June. According to recent data analysis, major breach reports have affected some 30.1 million patients spanning over 944 incidents since 2009.
