Two UMC Southwest Gastroenterology physicians kept patient data on an unsecured server, local news affiliate KCBD reports.
What you should know:
1. The Lubbock, Texas-based provider group notified affected patients. The health system found no evidence of misuse.
2. The providers were using a cloud-based Google shared drive to track follow-up patient care tasks, and one provider was forwarding emails to an unsecured Google account.
3. The patient information included names, addresses, phone numbers, medical record numbers, service dates, birthdays, health insurance carriers, diagnoses and/or procedure information. No financial data was in the information.
4. UMC Physicians retrieved and/or deleted all affected files.
5. The providers were using the Google file with good intentions, but did not consider the security implications of an unsecured network.
6. UMC Physicians is training its employees on approved cloud storage platforms as a result of the incident.