Laptop Theft at Philly Hospital Affects Thousands

Approximately 21,000 patients of Thomas Jefferson University Hospital in Philadelphia have been put at risk following the theft of a personal laptop.

According to eSecurity Planet, the laptop, which was stolen from an office in the hospital, contained the names, birth dates, Social Security numbers, insurance information and other internal and administrative coding data. The laptop was password protected, but the data was not encrypted.

The hospital has issued an apology for the incident:

On behalf of everyone at Jefferson Hospitals, please accept our apologies and know that we are committed to providing assistance to the affected patients ... Jefferson Hospitals has extensive internal policies reflecting our commitment to the appropriate use of personal health information and employees receive training on these policies annually.