A sign at the Northern Navajo Medical Center in Shiprock, New Mexico. Photo from Billings Area Indian Health Service / Facebook
An employee of the Indian Health Service improperly removed documents containing personal information of about 7,500 patients, the agency disclosed this week. According to a notice posted on the IHS website, cardboard boxes containing data -- including Social Security numbers, birth dates, diagnoses and insurance policy numbers, the Associated Press reported -- on 470 patients from the Northern Navajo Medical Center were discovered at a public rental storage facility in New Mexico last October. A subsequent investigation turned up documents on another 7,000 patients. "All documents have been retrieved from the storage units and returned to the medical center," the notice states. "At this time IHS has not received any indication that the information has been accessed or used by any unauthorized individuals." The IHS did not say why it waited six months to disclose the data breach. The agency also did not say whether the employee who took the documents has been reprimanded. "IHS takes patient privacy very seriously and in light of this incident, has reviewed and updated policies and procedures and provided additional training to help prevent future incidents," the agency said. "IHS is also providing face-to-face privacy training for all department staff, to include records management responsibilities and requirements on maintaining government documents." The Northern Navajo Medical Center is located on the Navajo Nation. Get the Story:
Hospital patient information turns up in NM storage units (AP 4/5)
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