Emory Healthcare missing info on patients from 17 year period | Business

ATLANTA (WXIA) - Emory Healthcare says they are missing 10 data disks of information on surgical patients from between 1990 and 2007 from a storage location at Emory University Hospital.

Officials released a statement Wednesday afternoon that said as soon as they discovered the disks were missing, that an exhaustive search began. The search and investigation is continuing.

According to the university, the disks were removed from their storage location at some point between February 7 and February 20, 2012. The disks came from an old computer system that was deactivated in 2007.

Officials insist there is no indication the information has been misused in any way. They also insist this is not a breach or hacking of their systems.

The disks, they said, may include Social Security numbers, names, addresses, birthdates and clinical information from surgery patients at Emory University Hospital, Emory University Hospital Midtown (formerly Crawford Long Hospital), and the Emory Clinic Ambulatory Surgery Center between September 1990 and April 2007.

Emory Healthcare officials said they are contacting patients for whom they have current addresses for directly, but are asking anyone who thinks they may be affected, and did not receive any contact via mail from Emory Healthcare to call them at 1-855-205-6950, 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Friday, or visit http://www.emoryhealthcare.org/protection/.

Patients are encouraged to remain vigilant and to carefully review their account statements and credit reports.