Many of us have had to face the unpleasant experience of an unwanted hospital stay. The only hospital stays that we look forward to are those that involve the birth of a new baby in the family or to a close friend. There are many worries that come with having to go to the hospital and face surgery or intensive procedures. So can going to the hospital and having to face these medical challenges get any worse? Yes, it can and it has for some  patients in North Carolina.

A Winston-Salem news website is reporting that Moses Cone Hospital in Greensboro, has reported a missing laptop that contains the social security numbers of over 14,000 patients. The missing device was issued to an employee of one of the hospitals contractors and was stolen from their car. The information is password protected, however, cardiology and orthopedic patients that have been to this hospital since February 2004 need to be aware. This does not mean that it was stolen with the intent to steal the identities of those whose records are saved, however, it does mean that those people are at a much higher risk of having their personal information stolen and used than before.

Those who are included in the affected file are being offered free credit monitoring. “Moses Cone Health System and its vendor, VHA, deeply regret this incident and both are making changes to make sure it does not happen again,” said Lynn Mathews, Moses Cone compliance and privacy officer. There is no evidence at this time that the information has been accessed for improper use.

Articles similar to this one are on the internet every day. See our article “How Does LifeLock Work” for more tips on how to protect yourself if your personal information has been compromised.

This entry was posted on Monday, April 20th, 2009 at 8:16 am and is filed under Articles Concerning Identity Theft. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.