DEARBORN, Mich. – A data security breach at Beaumont Health is impacting more than 1,100 patients.
ORIGINAL STORY: Beaumont patients notified about unauthorized access of information by former hospital employee
According to hospital officials, a now-fired employee who worked in registration at Beaumont Hospital Dearborn accessed patient information and shared it with a person working on behalf of a personal injury attorney.
The information accessed was names, addresses, dates of birth, phone numbers, email addresses, the reason for treatment, insurance information, social security numbers and more. Not all of the patients affected were treated at the Dearborn location.
The State Grievance Commission alerted the hospital to the breach in December and an investigation revealed the employee started accessing information in February 2017 and kept doing it until October 2019.
Beaumont Health has notified the patients affected by the incident and has been working with police in case the former employee is charged.
Hospital officials said the company has taken steps to improve internal procedures to in order to minimize similar incidents.