LITTLE ROCK, Ark. — The University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences (UAMS) is notifying patients affected by a breach of personal information.
According to UAMS, on Nov. 29, 2021, officials discovered an employee sent emails from her UAMS email to her personal Gmail account with patient information attached on Nov. 15, 2021.
The attachments consisted of Excel spreadsheets used for internal billing compliance auditing purposes and/or billing statements addressed to UAMS for reimbursement.
The information in those documents included the names of 518 patients, their hospital account numbers, dates of service, insurance type, claim information for billing purposes and medical record numbers. Some patients' birthdays and medication information were also included.
The employee voluntarily left UAMS and officials say she says it was a "mistake."
UAMS says no credit card, debit card, bank account, address, driver's license or Social Security numbers were included in this information. The attachments did not have any clinical documents or medical records, such as progress notes by physicians, nurses or other health care providers, medical history or lab results.
UAMS is notifying those affected patients via mail and through its website.
"UAMS takes patient privacy and security seriously, and when we discovered this mistake, we did everything we could to mitigate the risk and prevent similar incidents from happening," said Heather Schmiegelow, J.D., UAMS HIPAA privacy officer.
UAMS says a police report was immediately filed with the UAMS Police Department. The UAMS Vice-Chancellor of Compliance says the former employee was adamant that it was a mistake and she did not retain or share any of the information.
If UAMS patients have questions or concerns, they may contact the UAMS HIPAA Office by email at hipaa@uams.edu, by phone at 501-603-1379 or toll-free at 1-888-729-2755. They may also call the UAMS Compliance Hotline at 1-888-511-3969 after-hours and holidays.
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